Economics and Biodiversity in Intensively Managed Agro-Ecosystems

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamic effects of biodiversity conservation on agricultural production in the context of specialised intensive farming systems. The focus is on the analysis of the dynamic effects of changes in the levels of agrobiodiversity, on technical change and productivity in intensive agricultural systems. A theoretical model is used to derive hypotheses regarding these linkages that are empirically tested using a stochastic production frontier model with data from a panel of UK cereal farms for the period 1989-2000. The results suggest that the increased agrobiodiversity has positively helped to shift the production frontier outwards. This indicates that the evolution of an intensive agricultural system to less intensive use of inputs can be consistent with non-decreasing output levels and an enhancement of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.Agrobiodiversity, Intensive Agriculture, Productivity, Technical change, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q12, Q16, Q24,