The book deals with the pricing of ecosystem services provided by agriculture. All provisioning, regulating, supporting and cultural services are being covered in this title. Chapters in this contributed volume cover topics such as pricing of services from the soil, water, and nutrient management. Quantified monetary values of carbon sequestration and renewable energy applications in agriculture are covered with clear-cut methodologies. This book also links ecosystem service-based pricing with crop insurance. Improving the farmers’ livelihood is the central goal of the agricultural production system throughout the world. Under the climate change context, farms’ produce is now climate-vulnerable and heavily dependent on weather conditions. Moreover, we often neglect the contribution of several positive impacts of agricultural practices on ecosystems and natural resources. Therefore, there is a need to quantify and value these ecosystem services in agriculture. However, valuation and pricing the services in agriculture both tangible and intangible is a challenge. It is necessary to have clear-cut methodologies for pricing ecosystem services of agriculture in terms of net monetary benefits. The ecosystem service-based pricing could be a solid basis for calculating the insurance to farmers in case of occurrence of natural hazard and associated crop damage. This book is of interest to scholars, teachers, researchers, environmental scientists, watershed managers, capacity builders, and policymakers. The book also serves as effective reading material for undergraduate and graduate students of agriculture economics, ecology, agronomy, and environmental sciences. National and international agricultural scientists, policymakers will also find this to be useful.

Agricultural systems are no longer evaluated solely on the basis of the food they provide, but also on their capacity to limit impacts on the environment, such as soil conservation, water quality and biodiversity conservation, as well as their contribution to mitigating and adapting to climate change. In order to cope with these multiple service functions, they must internalize the costs and benefits of their environmental impact. Payments for ecosystem services are hoped to encourage and promote sustainable practices via financial incentives. The authors show that while the principle is straightforward, the practice is much more complicated. Whereas scenic beauty and protection of water sources provide benefits to the local population, carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation can be considered international public goods, rendering potential payment schemes more complex. Few examples exist where national or international bodies have been able to set up viable mechanisms that compensate agricultural systems for the environmental services they provide. However this book provides several examples of successful programs, and aims to transfer them to other regions of the world. The authors show that a product can be sold if it is clearly quantified, there exists a means to determine the service's values, and there is a willing buyer. The first two sections of the book present methodological issues related to the quantification and marketing of ecosystem services from agriculture, including agroforestry. The third and final section presents case studies of practical payments for ecosystem services and experiences in Central and South America, and draws some lessons learnt for effective and sustainable development of ecosystem services compensation mechanisms.

This publication is primarily concerned with risks to arable and horticultural crops, and the applicability of insurance to managing these risks. Its purpose is to provide an introductory overview of crop and forestry insurance. It begins by defining the boundaries for these types of insurance products in order to assist those interested in exploring and exploiting this financial mechanism. It then outlines how to proceed with planning for crop insurance within the established boundaries. While recognizing that classic, damage-based and yield-based insurance products account for the bulk of all crop insurance written globally, the booklet also points out the dynamism of research and development into new insurance mechanisms. It presents two fairly new insurance products: the first based on insuring a level of crop revenue, and the second where insurable damage is determined on the basis of an index derived from data external to the insured farm. While some of the example material is taken from agriculture and forestry in developed countries, the basic target group of readers is expected to be those concerned with crop and forest risk management in developing parts of the world. This publication will be of interest to farmer unions, producer/commodity groups, processors, marketing firms and others contracting with farmer producers, officials of Ministries of Agriculture, Planning and Commerce, and bankers and insurers with farming and forestry clients.

This book turns attention towards the role of environmental services in agricultural landscapes as they provide a living for many poor in developing countries. It is one of the first books to focus on the effects of payment for PES programs on the rural poor.