Productive Capacity of Biodiversity: Crop Diversity and Permanent Grasslands in Northwestern France
- PDF / 1,618,345 Bytes
- 35 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 53 Downloads / 140 Views
Productive Capacity of Biodiversity: Crop Diversity and Permanent Grasslands in Northwestern France François Bareille1 · Pierre Dupraz2 Accepted: 25 July 2020 / Published online: 20 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Previous studies on the productive capacity of biodiversity emphasized that greater crop diversity increases crop yields. We examined the influence of two components of agricultural biodiversity—farm-level crop diversity and permanent grasslands—on the production of cereals and milk. We focused on productive interactions between these two biodiversity components, and between them and conventional inputs. Using a variety of estimators (seemingly unrelated regressions and general method of moments, with or without restrictions) and functional forms, we estimated systems of production functions using a sample of 3960 mixed crop-livestock farms from 2002 to 2013 in France. The estimates highlight that increasing permanent grassland proportion increased cereal yields under certain conditions and confirm that increasing crop diversity increases cereal and milk yields. Crop diversity and permanent grasslands can substitute each other and be a substitute for fertilizers and pesticides. Keywords Agriculture · Biodiversity · Ecosystem services · Pesticides · Productivity
1 Introduction Modern human activities have degraded biodiversity (MEA 2005). Converting natural areas to agricultural land is considered the main driver of the decrease in biodiversity (Díaz et al. 2020). In addition, the decrease in the number of crops grown has amplified this issue (Kleijn et al. 2009). This trend has raised questions about the ability to combine intensive agriculture and biodiversity conservation. Protecting biodiversity, however, is crucial because biodiversity contributes to ecosystem functioning, which ultimately influences the provision of many ecosystem services (ES) that are valued by societies, in particular by farmers (Hooper et al. 2005; MEA 2005). Supporting and regulating ES (e.g. nutrient cycles, biological control) have been increasingly recognized as inputs for agriculture (Zhang et al. 2007). Several economic studies have analyzed effects of these ES on the production of crop farms. To this end, they * François Bareille [email protected] 1
Economie Publique, INRAE, Agro Paris Tech, Université Paris-Saclay, Thiverval‑Grignon, France
2
SMART-LERECO, INRAE, Rennes, France
13
Vol.:(0123456789)
366
F. Bareille, P. Dupraz
estimated production functions that used biodiversity indicators as inputs (e.g. Di Falco et al. 2010).1 These biodiversity indicators, calculated as functions of proportions of agricultural land-use types, usually indicate the degree of habitat diversity within the studied agroecosystems. Even though the indicators reflect only a small portion of the full concept of biodiversity, they are correlated with species diversity and richness (Burel and Baudry 2003) and can thus be considered as proxies of productive ES (i.e., ES with properties of agricultural inpu
Data Loading...
