Economic Valueation of Agro Biodiversity and its Determinant in West Gojjam Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: Choice Experiment Approach
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Environmental resources, such as agro biodiversity has many benefits to human beings. However, absence of markets and the activity of human beings increase the loss of agro-biodiversity. In this case, application of non-market valuation methods and identifying determinant factors of agrobiodiversity have paramount importance. Therefore, this study is conducted to quantify the total economic values and determinant factors of agro-biodiversity in West Gojjam zone of Amhara region. Random parameter logit estimate revealed that farmers WTA for landrace crops, organic farming, and crop species diversity are 549.58, 430, and 228.53 birrs per year per household. To see the effect of decision maker characterstics conditional logit with interaction terms was also evaluated and it shows that age, household size, and education level of farm household are significant factors affecting demand for agro-biodiversity attributes. In addition to valuation, determinant factors of agro-biodiversity were analyzed. The result of both poisson and Tobit model estimates of cereal and horticulture crop diversity, suggests that the sign and magnitudes of the effect of a farm, household, and agro-ecological characteristics accompanied by agriculture policies are different. For instance, age, gender, and household size have an insignificant effect on cereal crop diversity, while they have a significant effect on Horticulture Crop diversity. Moreover, number of plots is an important variable for increasing cereal crop diversity, while it has no significant effect on horticulture crop diversity. The study recommends that to conserve agro biodiversity effctively the government and agriculture organizations should motivate the production of organic farming through price premiums and quick certification of organic crops, expand gene banks to restore lost traditional varieties and motivate farmers to cultivate traditional crops, give training for farmers about agro-biodiversity, improve the efficiency of irrigation water use, and scientifically identify types of crops supported in inter cropping.
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Agro-biodiversity, Choice Experiment, Economic Valuation