Climate-Smart Agriculture Policy and (In)Justice for Smallholders in Developing Countries

This chapter analyzes whether the current policy for climate-smart agriculture meets the demands of climate justice and respects the rights of smallholders, and if not, how it should be amended. The study is based on a literature review and several interviews with climate-smart agriculture actors from diverse backgrounds: (1) consultant or practitioner, (2) farmer, (3) business or entrepreneur, (4) scientist. To examine the climate-smart agriculture concept and its implementation, the following ethical positions are mainly considered: (1) maximalist, (2) minimalist, (3) Pogge´s intermediate position, (4) Nussbaum's capability approach, (5) Kantian, (t) altruism. This study found that the current climate-smart agriculture approaches are not fairly implemented, due to the unjust sharing of benefits of income and burdens of emission reduction costs, among smallholders and big industries. According to the principles of climate justice, this sharing proportion should be equally distributed based on an individual's capacities and poverty should also be taken into consideration.

An Approach to Analysing Water Consumers’ Acceptance of Risk-Reduction Costs

The proper operation of a water supply system (WSS) requires constant investment. The priority is to provide residents with high quality potable water, in the required quantity and pressure, in accordance with the applicable regulations. The paper presents an assessment of the potential inherent operational risk of a WSS in support of the risk-based investment management process. It is of high importance to invest in the operational safety as it concerns both producers and consumers. The investment engenders additional costs that should partially be supported by the consumers. Thus, the paper presents a methodology to analyse consumers’ readiness to accept water supply services’ additional costs. The proposed methods may underpin a comprehensive program for risk-based investment management and operational decision-making. The case study and the approach in this article concern one particular regional WSS, based on information collected from water consumers. The assessment suggests a willingness to tolerate additional costs in view of enhancing the performance of the water supply services.

Production Optimization versus Asset Availability – a Review

Nowadays, companies want to give a quick answer in order to face their market competitors. Thesequick responses must be reflected in the quality of the products; to this be possible, it is necessary to manage anumber of factors that will bring benefits in its market positioning. As technology grows, there is the possibility, ata computational level, to create a combination of mathematical and technological tools that were not implementedin the past due to the lack of resources, since they have high robustness about their analytical resolution.This paper presents mathematical and computer tools that have potential great benefits when applied to industrialproblems solving, such as operation management.Along the paper it is made a temporal location of all tools with their main objectives about optimizing industrial processes, focusing on maintenance costs, contributing directly to the rationalization of global costs of theprocesses.Analytical and technological methods that have had great success regarding to the reduction costs of productionin industries are presented. The approaches of this paper bring a literary review of process optimization, namelyabout Neural Networks and multivariate analysis for prediction

Strategies for Capital Constrained Timber and Carbon Sink Supply Chain under the Cap-and-Trade Scheme

We consider a capital constrained timber and carbon sink supply chain under the cap-and-trade scheme, where the forest company produces timber and carbon sink. We consider two subsidy modes: financing subsidy to the carbon sink forests and financing subsidy to the manufacturer’s emission reductions. We apply a Stackelberg model and mainly consider the impact of subsidies on the profits and the strategies of the supply chain members. The results show that when the government gives a financing subsidy to the carbon sink forests, it is conducive to promoting the expansion of carbon sink forests, as well as the enhancement of the forest company’s profit. However, a larger supply of carbon sinks generates a lower price, which leads to the manufacturer reducing the technical emission reduction level and purchasing more carbon emission rights instead. On the other hand, when the manufacturer receives a financing subsidy for the technical emission reduction costs, its production becomes cleaner than before, and the profits of the forest company and the manufacturer increase.

Climate-Smart Agriculture Policy and (In)Justice for Smallholders in Developing Countries

This chapter analyzes whether the current policy for climate-smart agriculture meets the demands of climate justice and respects the rights of smallholders, and if not, how it should be amended. The study is based on a literature review and several interviews with climate-smart agriculture actors from diverse backgrounds: (1) consultant or practitioner, (2) farmer, (3) business or entrepreneur, (4) scientist. To examine the climate-smart agriculture concept and its implementation, the following ethical positions are mainly considered: (1) maximalist, (2) minimalist, (3) Pogge´s intermediate position, (4) Nussbaum's capability approach, (5) Kantian, (t) altruism. This study found that the current climate-smart agriculture approaches are not fairly implemented, due to the unjust sharing of benefits of income and burdens of emission reduction costs, among smallholders and big industries. According to the principles of climate justice, this sharing proportion should be equally distributed based on an individual's capacities and poverty should also be taken into consideration.

Mechanical Harvesting of Ornamental Citrus Trees in Valencia, Spain

Citrus trees are used as ornamental plants in several Spanish cities. They give a nice color to the streets and a nice scent in the flowering stage, but when the fruits fall, they dirty the roads and pavements, and can cause accidents; this is the reason why gardeners must detach and collect the fruits. This task is being done manually, but it is quite inefficient and expensive. In this study, three types of machines have been used to mechanize this task: a trunk shaker with umbrella, a trunk shaker hitched to an orchard tractor, and an experimental smaller sized shaker that can be attached to small and pedestrian tractors. The shaking patterns used by each equipment, detachment percentages, mobility constraints, and tree damage have been measured, and reduction costs have been estimated. After three years of study, the system has been fully accepted by both gardeners and citizens.