1Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
2Scientist, ICAR-NIAP, New Delhi, India
3Reader-F, Economics, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, NISER, Bhubaneswar, India
4Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India
*Corresponding author: suvangi.rath@gmail.com (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2473-8101)
Online published on 3 March, 2025.
India’s economy highly relies on its agricultural sector to ensure food and livelihood security for its ever-going population. However, demographic, economic, social, and climatic changes exert pressure on natural resources. Ecosystem services play a pivotal role in adaptation and mitigating the climate change impacts. In this study, we examined the potential drivers and economic value of agro-ecosystem services in India by using a meta-analysis framework. A total of 817 data estimates were considered for the study. The results indicated that provisioning services contributed highest to the agro-ecosystem services with an estimated average value of 22306 ha-1 year-1, followed by regulating services ( 9021 ha-1 year-1) and supporting services ( 4613 ha-1 year-1). Also, we found that land productivity and crop diversification have a positive effect on the value of agro-ecosystem services while population density had a negative effect. Further, the study revealed that cultural services have been least explored in agroecosystems nevertheless their actual value is much higher than the estimated one. We conclude that efforts should be diverted towards the promotion of crop diversification practices and providing incentives in the form of payment for ecosystem services to enhance agro-ecosystem services and mitigate climate change’s impact on agriculture.
⓿ The valuation of agro-ecosystem services in India started only in 2017.
⓿ Provisioning services contributed the highest to the values of agro-ecosystem services while benefit transfer methods were the most widely used for the valuation studies.
⓿ Factors such as ecosystem service type, valuation methods, land productivity, crop diversification, and population density affected the value of agro-ecosystem services.
⓿ Robust methodologies need to be developed for such valuation studies and the focus should be on the non-marketed services from agriculture, especially the cultural services which are the most ignored ones.
Ecosystem Services, Ecosystem Valuation, Agriculture, India, Meta-Analysis
