Ecosystem Service Values and Wheat Agroecosystem Management Types in a Semi-Arid Region, Iran

Saeed Sharafi, Zahra Marzban and Deirdre Dragovich ()
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Saeed Sharafi: Department of Environment Science and Engineering, Arak University, Arak 38156879, Iran
Zahra Marzban: Department of Agronomy Science, University of Zabol, Zabol 9861335856, Iran
Deirdre Dragovich: School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Global demand for ecosystem services like food and clean water is increasing, and it is crucial to economically value these services for the purposes of environmental conservation, land-use planning, and the implementation of green taxes. Focusing on a monoculture wheat agroecosystem, the economic value of ecosystem services and environmental damage from different farm management types is here compared with natural ecosystems in a semi-arid region in Iran during the 2019–2020 agricultural year. Using field survey data collected from 203 wheat farms with varying management practices, we estimated the economic value of six ecosystem services, along with three environmental damages. The net value of provisioning/regulating services less environmental disservices in wheat agroecosystems was highest for farms with a conservation management system, followed (in rank order) by intensive, traditional, organic, and industrial management types. Wheat agroecosystems recorded net values of 41.94% to 66.92% below those of natural ecosystems in the region. The findings show that converting natural ecosystems into wheat agroecosystems increases the value of provisioning services (food and forage) but also substantially increases environmental costs. These costs rose linearly with the value of increases in provisioning services.

Keywords: agroecosystem management; economic valuation; ecosystem services; sustainable agriculture; wheat production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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