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Water is vital for agriculture and thus food security. While irrigation has helped boost agricultural production in many areas, uncertainties linked to the effects of climate change on water supply and demand are expected to add new pressures on water resources and agricultural sustainability. Ensuring agricultural and water sustainability today and in the future requires more effort to analyse the challenges faced by agriculture. Nevertheless, despite the important role of water as a driver for agricultural production, the interplay between irrigation water and food production is lacking in most previous studies (Sulser et al. 2010).

Since 2012 the JRC has been working on the development of a water module in the CAPRI model to allow expanding the analysis of agricultural policy to cover water related issues. This report describes the latest improvements to the module including the change to 2012 base year, the update of the water data used and the spatial coverage, the inclusion of water as a production factor for rain-fed agriculture. In addition, it describes several aspects for further developments of the CAPRI water module, such as: to account for competition between agricultural and non-agricultural water use as well as extending the water module to non-EU regions. The usefulness of the update is shown with two stylized scenarios reflecting impacts of climate change both in terms of less water availability for irrigation and precipitation., JRC.D.4-Economics of Agriculture

Recent studies point to climate change being one of the long-term drivers of agricultural market uncertainty. To advance in the understanding of the influence of climate change on future agricultural market developments, we compare a reference scenario for 2030 with alternative simulation scenarios that differ regarding: (1) emission scenarios; (2) climate projections; and (3) the consideration of carbon fertilization effects. For each simulation scenario, the CAPRI model provides global and EU-wide impacts of climate change on agricultural markets. Results show that climate change would considerably affect agrifood markets up to 2030. Nevertheless, market-driven adaptation strategies (production intensification, trade adjustments) would soften the impact of yield shocks on supply and demand. As a result, regional changes in production would be lower than foreseen by other studies focused on supply effects.

Human existence is inherently dependent on agriculture. The anthropogenic induced climate change seems to have an important impact on agriculture; nevertheless, this effect is uncertain. In order to unfold the range of the uncertainty we need to employ scenarios, which represent future greenhouse gases emissions levels as well as their socio-economic drivers. Due to the dynamics of the progress in science, technology and economy there is a need for continuous incorporations of this reality into the scenarios to create them as plausible as possible, in order to obtain essential information about, for instance, policies implications or costs associated to climate change. The scenarios must serve to produce robust results to facilitate policy decision making and not to be just a matter of a scientific exercise.

The convergence process among European academic degrees pursues the exchange of graduate students and the adaptation of university programs to social demand. Within the framework of the European Higher Education, European universities will need to be more competitive not only by increasing or maintaining the student enrolment, but also in their academic performance. Thus, the reinforcing of English language education within the University Programs might play an important role to reach these objectives. In this sense, a complete survey was accomplished at the Agricultural Egineering School of Madrid (ETSIA ) addressing issues such as: identification the needs for bilingual instruction at ETSIA, identification resources needed and interest and background in English language of students and professors (San José et al., 2013). The conclusions and recommendations to promote the bilingual instruction in the ETSIA, taking into account the approaches followed by other Spanish universities, are presented in this work.

Universities are offering more and more courses and programmes in an additional language. At HEPCLIL, therefore, we would like to debate the methodological im - plications of these changes, giving voice to practical classroom experiences and initiatives. We would also like to act as a platform for cutting-edge research on CLIL in higher education. What impact does teaching in an additional language have on content or language learning? What are the effects on teachers and stu - dents in higher education?

Projections for world food production and prices play a crucial role to evaluate and tackle future food security challenges. Understanding how these projections will be affected by climate change is the main objective of this study. By means of a bio-economic approach we assess the economic impacts of climate change on agrifood markets, providing both a global analysis and a regionalised evaluation within the EU. To account for uncertainty, we analyse the IPCC emission scenario A1B for the 2030 horizon under several simulation scenarios that differ in (1) the climate projection, from HadleyCM3 (warm) or ECHAM5 (mild) global circulation models; and (2) the influence of CO2 effects. Results of this study indicate that agrifood market projections to 2030 are very sensitive to climate change uncertainties and, in particular to the magnitude of the carbon fertilization effect.

The agricultural sector could be one of the most vulnerable economic sectors to the impacts of climate change in the coming decades. Climate change impacts are related to changes in the growth period, extreme weather events, and changes in temperature and recipitation patterns, among others. All of these impacts may have significant consequences on agricultural production(Bates, et al.2008. A main issue regarding climate change impacts is related to the uncertainty associated with their occurrence. Climate change impacts can bestimated with simulation models based on several assumptions, among which the future patterns of emissions of greenhouse g asses are quite likely the most relevant, driving the development of future scenarios, i.e. plausible visions of how the future may unfold. Those scenarios are developed as storylines associated with different assumptions about climate and socioeconomic conditions and emissions, with reference figures, such as demographic projections, average global temperatures, etc.(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2000). Within this context, climate change impact assessment is forced to consider multiple and interconnected sources of uncertainty in order to produce valuable information for policymakers.

En este trabajo se estudia el tipo de recursos educativos más interesantes para la plataforma educativa Econosfera, desarrollada para complementar la enseñanza presencial de Economía en primer curso universitario de ingeniería, con el fin de favorecer la adquisición de conocimientos de forma autónoma. Basándonos en diferentes literaturas que inciden en la importancia de la interacción con los estudiantes, estudiamos qué esperan de Econosfera, y qué materiales educativos les serían más atractivos. Para ello, hemos realizado una encuesta en la que se pregunta sobre materiales educativos y sobre el uso habitual que los alumnos hacen de Internet. Un análisis econométrico nos ha permitido evaluar qué materiales potencialmente ayudan a los estudiantes a un proceso de aprendizaje más activo (ejercicios de autoevaluación, vídeos), y qué otros pueden desanimar a un grupo grande de alumnos (lecturas, experimentos).

This report is based on the outcome of a study carried out by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS, Spain) in cooperation with EuroCARE (Bonn, Germany). The report provides a detailed description of the methodology developed to assess the implications of the European Renewable Energy Directive on the agricultural sector, with an explicit focus on regional effects of biofuel targets in the EU. For the analysis, the spatial agricultural sector model CAPRI has been extended to include a global representation of biofuel markets (with endogenous supply, demand and trade flows for biofuels and biofuel feedstocks) while keeping the focus on regional impacts in the EU. The model is capable to simulate the impacts of EU biofuel policies on food production and prices, the potential use of by-products in the feed chain, the increasing pressure on marginal and idle land and the share of imported biofuels (self-sufficiency indicators). CAPRI is now able to jointly assess biofuel and agricultural policies, including policy instruments defined at the Member State level. The CAPRI biofuel module allows for a detailed analysis of most relevant biofuel support instruments like consumer tax exemptions, quota obligations, import tariffs and other trade measures. Additionally, the model allows for analysing scenarios regarding technical progress in 2nd generation technologies for biofuels., JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Economy

Nuestro modelo es evaluar las ganancias que deberían generar la creación de un centro de intercambio de gestión individual en zona regable del Canal de Urgel para que tal centro resultase beneficioso para la comunidad de regantes. La zona regable del Canal de Urgel ocupa más de 70000 ha de regadío. La red de riego del Canal de Urgel está constituida por canales, acequias y alimentadores que conforman un sistema de aproximadamente 3000 Km. Las acequias que se nutren de agua provinente del drenaje de parcelas ya regadas se denominan alimentadores. Más del 11.8% de la superficie es regada con agua procedente de alimentadores. La creación de un centro de intercambio de gestión individual permitiría a cada unidad de riego decidir el volumen de agua a utilizar y el volumen a ceder a dicho centro. Sin embargo, sin medición volumétrica la cesión individual de derechos es altamente problemática. Por otra parte la modernización de la red de impediría el uso del agua proveniente de los alimentadores. En ausencia de medición volumétrica tal modernización solo sería posible crear un centro de intercambio de gestión colectiva donde la comunidad de regantes (y no la unidad de riego individual) actuase como un único decisor. En nuestro trabajo estimamos, a través de modelos económicos de programación matemática positiva, las ganancias asociadas a un centro de gestión colectiva y al sistema de alimentadores y las comparamos con las ganancias asociadas a un centro de intercambio de gestión individual con el objetivo de determinar las ganancias mínimas que debería reportar la creación de un mercado de derechos de gestión individual para que representase una verdadera mejora sobre otros sistemas de riego.

Although numerous modelling efforts have integrated food and water considerations at the farm or river basin level, very few agro-economic models are able to jointly assess water and food policies at the global level. The present report explores the feasibility of integrating water considerations into the CAPRI model. First, a literature review of modelling approaches integrating food and water issues has been conducted. Three agro-economic models, IMPACT, WATERSIM and GLOBIOM, have been analysed in detail. In addition, biophysical and hydrological models estimating agricultural water use have also been studied, in particular the global hydrological model WATERGAP and the LISFLOOD model. Thanks to the programming approach of its supply module, CAPRI shows a high potentiality to integrate environmental indicators as well as to enter new resource constraints (land potentially irrigated, irrigation water) and input-output relationships. At least in theory, the activity-based approach of the regional programming model in CAPRI allows differentiating between rainfed and irrigated activities. The suggested approach to include water into the CAPRI model involves creating an irrigation module and a water use module. The development of the CAPRI water module will enable to provide scientific assessment on agricultural water use within the EU and to analyze agricultural pressures on water resources. The feasibility of the approach has been tested in a pilot case study including two NUTS 2 regions (Andalucia in Spain and Midi-Pyrenees in France). Preliminary results are presented, highlighting the interrelations between water and agricultural developments in Europe. As a next step, it is foreseen to further develop the CAPRI water module to account for competition between agricultural and non-agricultural water use. This will imply building a water use sub-module to compute water use balances., JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Economy

EU biofuels support Biofuels modelling with CAPRI Scenario setting Main results Concluding remarks Biofuels production and use will remain mainly driven by public support Strong links of biofuels to agricultural markets Development of second generation technologies would ease food-fuel links

Históricamente, los instrumentos de gestión de mercados constituían el núcleo de la PAC, de tal forma que medidas como las compras de intervención o la protección en frontera proporcionaban un elevado grado de sostenimiento de ingresos a gran parte de las producciones agrarias europeas.

The Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) requires that 20% of the EU's energy needs should come from renewable sources by 2020, and includes a target for the transport sector of 10% from biofuels. This report analyses and discusses the global impacts of this biofuel target on agricultural production, markets and land use, as simulated by three agricultural sector models, AGLINK-COSIMO, ESIM and CAPRI. The impacts identified include higher EU production of ethanol and biodiesel, and of the crops used to produce them, as well as more imports of both biofuels. Trade flows of biofuel feedstocks also change to reflect greater EU demand, including a significant increase in vegetable oil imports. However, as the extra demand is small in world market terms, the impact on world market prices is limited. With the EU biofuel target, global use of land for crop cultivation is higher by 5.2 million hectares. About one quarter is area within the EU, some of which would otherwise have left agriculture., JRC.DDG.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Economy

Even though recent discussions on food prices and indirect land use change point at potential conflicts associated with the production of biofuels the appraisal of biofuels as an effective instrument to slow down climate change and reduce energy dependency still prevails. The EU Renewable Energy Directive (EUROPEAN COMMISSION, 2009) underlines this trend by setting a target of 10% share of energy from renewable sources in the transport sector by 2020. As economic competitiveness of biofuel production is still not given in most European countries, support policies are essential to achieve this target. Second generation technologies have still not attained marketability, wherefore biofuel consumption will continue to significantly affect agricultural markets. Furthermore, biofuel trade receives more attention. Apart from Brazil the USA has evolved to one of the key biofuel producer in recent years replacing the EU as the dominant biodiesel exporter. Those developments in regions outside the EU have to be considered within the evolution of biofuel markets. The primary objective of this paper is to analyse in detail impacts of future biofuel developments on agricultural markets under several assumptions regarding the availability of 2nd generation technologies, the EU support policy framework and the EU trade policy regime. Therefore, we developed an extended version of the comparative static agricultural sector model CAPRI which covers global biofuel markets with a detailed focus on Europe. The results supplement already existing model-based impact assessments while focussing on EU Member State level and introducing global bilateral trade of biofuels based on the Armington approach. The results of our scenario analysis presented in this paper indicate that the European 2020 biofuel target will significantly affect global and European biofuel- as well as agricultural markets. Thereby, global biofuel trade will notably increase, especially flows of biodiesel from the USA and Argentina and of ethanol from Brazil into the EU will increase accentuating the net-importing position of the EU by 2020. On the agricultural markets, we can observe that additional demand caused by European biofuel production will be, on the one hand, partially compensated by substitution effects on the feed market and, on the other hand, mainly filled by increasing imports. Thus, effects on agricultural product prices will also be significant, while effects on EU agricultural production will only be marginal. This leads consequently to only marginal environmental impacts within Europe and confirm the assumption that notable environmental effects caused by EU biofuel production and consumption will mainly take place outside Europe, especially in those countries which are important producers of biofuel feedstock.

En este trabajo se evalúa la contribución de los instrumentos económicos al uso sostenible del agua de riego utilizando el modelo de programación matemática, MASIA. Aplicamos el análisis a una zona del noreste español donde la demanda creciente de agua para usos no agrícolas, la creación de nuevos distritos de riego y el proceso de cambio climático, requerirán una redistribución de los derechos de uso de agua. Caracterizamos el comportamiento de los agricultores introduciendo el progreso técnico así como restricciones de carácter institucional, medioambiental y técnico. Evaluamos los efectos económicos y medioambientales de varios instrumentos de política y analizamos las posibilidades de cesión e intercambio de agua entre diversas comunidades. Por último, mesuramos las pérdidas asociadas a asignaciones no eficiente de los derechos de riego y puntualizamos las características institucionales que facilitarían una gestión eficiente y sostenible del sistema de riego

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) establishes the basic principles of sustainable water policy. However, despite the WFD¿s requirements, economic instruments have not been widely used in the agricultural sector. Further progress towards the implementation of the WFD will require the development of innovative assessment tools, capable to evaluate sitespecific impacts of water pricing policies prior to their implementation. This paper presents an integrated modelling system developed to assess the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of water and agricultural policies at the local and regional level. Empirical results show that new agricultural policies could contribute to reduce the pressure on water resources., JRC.DDG.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Economy

Water resources will face increasing competition and higher environmental concerns during this century. To meet these challenges, the new Water Framework Directive has drawn up an integrated framework and established the basic principles for a sustainable water policy in the European Union. The introduction of water prices reflecting the true cost of irrigation is one of its most innovative components. In this paper, a positive mathematical programming model is developed to assess the environmental and socio-economic impacts of water pricing policies in Spanish irrigated lands. The model interface allows friendly use and easy replication in a large number of irrigation districts, selected throughout the Spanish territory. The model results show the impact on environmental indicators, water consumption, cropping patterns, technology adoption, labor, farmers' income, and the water agency revenues when different scenarios of cost recovery are considered. It is argued that this modeling approach may be used as a management tool to assist in the implementation of the cost recovery approach of the new Water Framework Directive.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved throughout time reflecting the continuously changing concerns of European societies and its rural areas. The Mid-Term Review of the CAP, agreed on June 2003, represents a complete change in the way the EU support the farm sector. On the one hand, “decoupling” will make EU farmers more competitive and market oriented and, on the other hand, “cross-compliance” will ensure the respect of environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards. There is less emphasis on market and income support measures within Pillar 1 and an increasing importance of rural development programs. One of the particularities of the new CAP is that Member States have several options to implement the single payment scheme. That means that the CAP sets up the general guidelines but it will be for Member States and regions to decide the specific measures to adopt. The versatile nature of the new CAP will lead to a multiplicity of support schemes, rising the interest of developing economic tools flexible enough to take into account the different features and concerns of the rural areas. This motivates the aim of this paper to develop a methodology aimed to guide the design of regional or local strategies in the Spanish farming systems. The need to collect comprehensive field data is a serious limitation of traditional farm modelling methodologies to perform evaluation on a global scale. Most of existing analyses are restricted to the evaluation of impacts in limited areas making it difficult to establish general conclusions. In this context, the development of methodologies adapted to work with the limited databases available and that can be applied to diverse situations are highly valuable. In this paper we propose a methodological framework to assess the environmental and socio- economic impacts of different policy option in a large number of farming systems representing the heterogeneous characteristics that can be found throughout the Spanish territory. In this sense, we develop a positive mathematical programming model that allows us to simulate farmers’ behaviour under alternative policy scenarios. One of the main limitations of positive mathematical programming is that available options to the farmers are limited to the observed activities in the actual situation. We propose a cost transfer approach which allow us to overcome this difficulty. The model interface allows friendly use and easy replication to a large number of rural areas. This modelling approach allows us to evaluate environmental and socio-economic impacts of different agricultural policy scenarios. Chosen scenarios focus on some recently envisaged policy alternatives, such as the cross-compliance option in the Agenda 2000 and the decoupling scheme in the Mid Term Review of the CAP. Model results allow us to suggest that this modelling approach may be used as a management tool to assist the design of regional programs of measures within the CAP.

El fuerte nexo existente entre el clima y la agricultura ha determinado que este sector sea uno de los más vulnerables al cambio climático. Altas concentraciones de gases efecto invernadero afectarán directamente a factores climáticos como la temperatura o las precipitaciones, impactando significativamente a la productividad agrícola. Esto generará diversas respuestas socio-económicas a diferentes escalas, afectando los precios y el mercado de los alimentos a nivel mundial, como también los ingresos de las explotaciones y el consumo de los hogares a nivel local. La complejidad de las respuestas socio-económicas que pueden generarse debido al impacto del cambio climático en la agricultura, ha llevado al desarrollo de diversos instrumentos de modelización cuantitativa que permitan desentrañar estas respuestas a diferentes escalas. Si bien este desarrollo ha sido continuo, mejorado y ha ayudado al mejor entendimiento de la comunidad científica respecto a los posibles efectos económicos del cambio climático, aún quedan brechas e incertezas que faltan por investigar, especialmente a nivel sub-nacional. Varias herramientas de modelización se han desarrollado a escalas que no permiten reflejar explícitamente las respuestas de las explotaciones afectadas o capturar las heterogeneidades de diversos sistemas agrícolas que pueden existir en una misma región, muchas veces sobre-estimando la capacidad de respuesta de los agricultores más vulnerables. Así mismo, las políticas de adaptación, especialmente aquellas aplicadas en países en desarrollo, requieren de evaluaciones ex ante respecto de las respuestas locales a futuros impactos del cambio climático. Estas evaluaciones podrían apoyar a los contribuyentes a comprender de manera ex ante las respuestas a nivel micro a estrategias de adaptación, ayudándoles así a asignar los recursos de manera más eficiente. Además, estas evaluaciones podrían apoyar el desarrollo de planes de adaptación, proporcionando información relevante para fortalecer el vínculo entre las necesidades locales de adaptación y las iniciativas de adaptación nacionales. El objetivo de la presente investigación es analizar los efectos del cambio climático en la agricultura bajo diferentes escalas sub-nacionales a través del uso de modelos de programación matemática. Estos, permiten capturar tanto las respuestas socio-económicas de los agricultores más vulnerables como también la heterogeneidad de sistemas agrícolas existente en una misma región y sus diferentes respuestas al cambio climático y a posibles medidas de adaptación. Dos marcos de modelización son aplicados en dos regiones diferentes de Chile. Primero, un modelo hidroeconómico es desarrollado para la cuenca del río Vergara en la región del Bío Bío, para capturar los efectos socio-económicos de cambios en la disponibilidad de agua en la pequeña agricultura bajo riego. En segundo lugar, un modelo a nivel de hogares es aplicado en la región del Maule, zona central de Chile, para evaluar el impacto y la adaptación al cambio climático a nivel de micro escala, considerando la heterogeneidad de las respuestas a nivel de hogar. Los resultados generales del estudio destacan la importancia de las evaluaciones económicas del cambio climático a escalas sub-nacionales, como complemento a las evaluaciones globales y nacionales. Los resultados muestran que los impactos del cambio climático revelados a nivel de cuenca en el río Vergara y a nivel de hogar en la región del Maule comprometen principalmente a los agricultores más pobres. El modelo hidroeconómico aplicado en la cuenca del río Vergara resalta la necesidad de análisis de resultados a niveles desagregados, revelando impactos diferenciados entre los distintos actores. Así mismo, desde el punto de vista metodológico, el estudio ofrece una alternativa de análisis cuantitativo que considera a los agricultores como agentes aversos al riesgo y toma en cuenta el patrimonio como factor influyente sobre los efectos del cambio climático en la rentabilidad. En el caso del marco de modelización aplicado para la región del Maule, se resalta la vulnerabilidad de esta zona a los efectos del cambio climático, especialmente a los cambios en la disponibilidad de agua. Así mismo, este estudio permite comprender de mejor manera como las características agrícolas y económicas de los diversos hogares agrícolas influyen sobre sus respuestas al cambio climático y a posibles medidas de adaptación ----------ABSTRACT---------- The strong nexus between climate and agriculture has determined that agriculture is one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change. Higher concentrations of greenhouse gases will directly affect climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation, significantly impacting agricultural productivity. This impact will yield several socio-economic responses at different scales, affecting markets and food prices at the global level and farm income and household consumption at the local level. The complexities of socio-economic responses that may arise due to the impacts of climate change on agriculture have spurred the development of several quantitative modelling tools that allow one to disentangle these reactions at different scales. Although such tools have been continuously improved and have helped better determine the potential socio-economic effects of climate change, gaps and uncertainties that require further research remain, especially at sub-national levels. Several modelling tools have been developed at scales that do not allow one to explicitly reflect on the responses of affected farms or to capture the heterogeneities of several agricultural systems that may co-exist within the same region, thus resulting in overestimations of the capacities of more vulnerable farmers. Further, adaptation policies, and especially those applied in developing countries, require ex-ante assessments regarding local responses to future impacts of climate change. These assessments could support donors in developing an ex-ante comprehensive understanding of micro-level responses to adaptation strategies, in turn allowing them to allocate resources more efficiently. Moreover, these assessments could support the development of adaptation plans, providing relevant information that can strengthen the link between local adaptation needs and national adaptation initiatives. The scope of this research is to assess the economic effects of climate change on agriculture at different sub-national scales through the use of mathematical programming models. These models allow for one to capture the most vulnerable farmer's socio-economic responses and the heterogeneities of different agricultural systems within the same region based on their different responses to the impacts of climate change and adaptation measures. Two modelling frameworks are applied to two regions of Chile. First, a hydro-economic model is developed for the Vergara River Basin in the Bío Bío region to capture the socio-economic effects of changes in water availability on small-scale agriculture irrigation. Second, a household model is applied to the Maule region in central Chile to assess the impacts of climate change and adaptation patterns at the micro scale while considering the heterogeneity of household level responses. The overall results of the study highlight the importance of economic assessments of the impacts of climate change conducted at sub-national scales as a complement to global and national assessments. The results show that economic impacts found at the basin scale for the Vergara River and at the household level for the Maule region mainly compromise to the poorest farmers. The hydro-economic model applied to the Vergara River Basin illustrates the relevance of analyses conducted at disaggregated levels, revealing different impacts among different farm types. Further, from a methodological perspective, this study offers an alternative quantitative analysis that considers the farmer as a risk-averse agent and that takes into account levels of wealth as a factor shaping climate change effects on profitability. For the modelling framework applied to the Maule region, we illustrate the irrigated semi-arid region’s vulnerability to climate change effects and especially to changes in water availability. Moreover, this study allows for a stronger understanding of how farm households’ agricultural and economic features affect their responses to climate change and likely adaptation measures.