Assessing the ecosystem services provided by conventional and organic farmlands: A better outcome for organic farmlands?

Ching-Hua Hsieh, Hsing-Wei Lin and Wan-Yu Liu

Ecosystem Services, 2023, vol. 60, issue C

Abstract: To assess and compare the value of conventional and organic farmland ecosystem services, this study firstly used the analytic network process to measure the weights of these services to the value. Then, the contingent valuation method was employed to investigate the public’s perception of farmland ecosystems as well as the amount that they would be willing to pay for ecosystem services offered by different types of farmland use. The results of the study revealed that, among seven common farmland use types, farmland cultivated using organic farming methods was perceived to be the most valuable. The estimated results of the regression model revealed that the amount that participants would be willing to pay for farmland ecosystem services was related to their average monthly income and their perception of farmland ecosystem services. This study offered the following recommendations: if the Taiwanese government wishes to increase the value of Taiwan’s farmland ecosystem services, it should introduce farmland afforestation incentives, organic farming incentives, and farmland-friendly incentives to encourage farmers to transform abandoned farmland or farmland cultivated using conventional farming methods into farmland cultivated using organic or environmentally friendly farming methods. Moreover, the government should increase subsidies granted for production environment maintenance to induce farmers to allow farmland to lie fallow. Additionally, the government can guide and promote agricultural experience activities such as 1-day trips to villages and farmland ecosystems to educate the public about farmland ecosystem services and to enable them to develop a positive understanding of farmland ecosystem services.

Keywords: Ecosystem services; Organic farming; Conventional farming; Contingent valuation method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041623000062
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoser:v:60:y:2023:i:c:s2212041623000062

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2023.101514

Access Statistics for this article

Ecosystem Services is currently edited by Leon C Braat

More articles in Ecosystem Services from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().