A new economic assessment index for the impact of climate change on grain yield

The impact of climate change on agriculture has received wide attention by the scientific community. This paper studies how to assess the grain yield impact of climate change, according to the climate change over a long time period in the future as predicted by a climate system model. The application of the concept of a traditional ＂yield impact of meteorological factor （YIMF）＂ or ＂yield impact of weather factor＂ to the grain yield assessment of a decadal or even a longer timescale would be suffocated at the outset because the YIMF is for studying the phenomenon on an interannual timescale, and it is difficult to distinguish between the trend caused by climate change and the one resulting from changes in non-climatic factors. Therefore, the concept of the yield impact of climatic change （YICC）, which is defined as the difference in the per unit area yields （PUAY） of a grain crop under a changing and an envisaged invariant climate conditions, is presented in this paper to assess the impact of global climate change on grain yields. The climatic factor has been introduced into the renowned economic Cobb-Douglas model, yielding a quantitative assessment method of YICC using real data. The method has been tested using the historical data of Northeast China, and the results show that it has an encouraging application outlook.     

Maritime safety for fishing boat operations and avoidable hijacking in Taiwan

Taiwanese fishing boats have been hijacked many times this year. Trouble at sea can usually be attributed to communication problems, inappropriate management and an unfair salary system. The majority of boats hijacked are high sea (long-line) fishing boats. Although fishery authorities ask the fishing boats to set up vessel monitoring systems (VMSs), this precaution has not been sufficient. There is a further need for improved management by the fishing boat owner and for an improved employment policy for seamen. The issue of maritime security is not new, but it remains a major concern and continues to be a threat to Taiwan and other countries. To date, there have been many cases of hijacking in the South China Sea. This paper analyzes the reasons for the hijackings and provides potential strategies to prevent future incidents.