Biodiversity Economics in the Field: The Values of Crop Diversity for Farmers

L'économie de la biodiversité sur le terrain: l'importance de la diversité des cultures pour les agriculteurs

François Bareille ()
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François Bareille: UMR PSAE - Paris-Saclay Applied Economics - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: Conservation of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes is often framed as an externality problem in which biodiversity is valued for benefits provided to agents outside the agricultural sector. This review develops a complementary perspective, where farmers may conserve biodiversity in order to self-internalize biodiversity-related services serving as inputs in the agricultural technology. After formalizing this mechanism in a microeconomic model and discussing biodiversity measurement through habitat indices, we organize the empirical literature around three values of biodiversity for agriculture: its productive value (increasing output), cost-saving value (reducing costs), and insurance value (stabilizing production). Evidence from observational data suggests that these values are overwhelmingly positive, but highly heterogeneous across contexts. The review also examines the dynamic and spatial dimensions of biodiversity, as well as the policy instruments that can exploit its technical properties when external values beyond private benefits justify intervention.

Keywords: production economics; natural insurance; land uses; ecosystem services; crop diversification; agrobiodiversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10-26
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