Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
links exist between a specific ecosystem service and changes in input costs or crop
yields, marketed products (such as reduced loss of grain yield from natural enemy
predation of crop pests), agricultural input costs, and product prices have been used
to estimate values of the ecosystem service. Where experimental data exist on how
cropping practices link to multiple ecosystem services, trade-off analyses offer a
limited way to rule out systems that are inefficient at generating desired services, as
in the example provided here from the MCSE.
Understanding the economic value of complex changes in agroecological sys-
tems at large scales calls for a third method based on eliciting information from
the people who would incur the costs and benefits of those changes. Data from
farmers, such as those from contingent valuation surveys, can capture the costs of
adopting modified cropping practices in a way that reflects the true heterogeneity of
farm resources and people. Estimates of economic value become possible by link-
ing such supply-side data on cost to provide ecosystem services with demand-side
data on how much members of the public would willingly pay for those services.
Evidence shows that the public is willing to pay for many ecosystem services at
rates that many farmers find acceptable, but a challenge is to find practical ways to
design an efficient and fair payment system for farmers supplying those services.
References
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