Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield

Factors such as invasive species, agricultural expansion, and climate change have resulted in global biodiversity loss. When engaging in agricultural expansion, private landowners often choose to plant crops with higher returns than forests provide. However, planting crops leads to the land with low...

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Main Authors: Wan-Yu Liu, Yi-Lin Chuang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-02-01
Series:Ecological Indicators
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X22012262
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author Wan-Yu Liu
Yi-Lin Chuang
author_facet Wan-Yu Liu
Yi-Lin Chuang
author_sort Wan-Yu Liu
collection DOAJ
description Factors such as invasive species, agricultural expansion, and climate change have resulted in global biodiversity loss. When engaging in agricultural expansion, private landowners often choose to plant crops with higher returns than forests provide. However, planting crops leads to the land with low plant coverage, negatively affecting the ecology and reduce biodiversity. Therefore, agroforestry has been one of the recent agricultural policy measures to induce the ecological benefits of farmlands. This study aims to access the payments for ecosystem services (PESs) and economic compensation for agroforestry considering three land use options (i.e., planting rice, corn, and the Taiwan Acacia) under the uncertainty of price and yield with and without support policies. Firstly, the estimated frequency distribution was generated by using the Monte Carlo simulation; then annual income, net present value, annuity, and the PESs at various levels of risk aversion (i.e., strong, moderate, and none) were calculated; and finally, the amounts of economic compensation were assessed. On the basis of Harry Markowitz’s modern portfolio theory, this study evaluated the economic compensation for converting planting a single-type crop to a portfolio of rice, corn, and the Taiwan Acacia; and determined their optimal weights with the minimal risk. The results showed that for farmers with different risk aversion levels, the minimum willingness to accept for economic compensation is approximately $ 657–2,134 ha/yr for rice and $ 667–2,955 ha/yr for corn. The farmers with higher risk aversion are willing to accept lower economic compensation. Regarding the portfolio, farmers with strong risk aversion had incentives to plant trees on less than 15 % of their land, and could receive up to $1,641 as the percentage increased; and farmers with a lower initial investment in the land had more incentives to plant trees.
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spelling doaj.art-35c3ebe2b2ef41fcacab6c72f07f72312023-01-27T04:18:59ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2023-02-01146109753Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yieldWan-Yu Liu0Yi-Lin Chuang1Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan; Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan; Corresponding author at: Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.Department of Forestry, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, TaiwanFactors such as invasive species, agricultural expansion, and climate change have resulted in global biodiversity loss. When engaging in agricultural expansion, private landowners often choose to plant crops with higher returns than forests provide. However, planting crops leads to the land with low plant coverage, negatively affecting the ecology and reduce biodiversity. Therefore, agroforestry has been one of the recent agricultural policy measures to induce the ecological benefits of farmlands. This study aims to access the payments for ecosystem services (PESs) and economic compensation for agroforestry considering three land use options (i.e., planting rice, corn, and the Taiwan Acacia) under the uncertainty of price and yield with and without support policies. Firstly, the estimated frequency distribution was generated by using the Monte Carlo simulation; then annual income, net present value, annuity, and the PESs at various levels of risk aversion (i.e., strong, moderate, and none) were calculated; and finally, the amounts of economic compensation were assessed. On the basis of Harry Markowitz’s modern portfolio theory, this study evaluated the economic compensation for converting planting a single-type crop to a portfolio of rice, corn, and the Taiwan Acacia; and determined their optimal weights with the minimal risk. The results showed that for farmers with different risk aversion levels, the minimum willingness to accept for economic compensation is approximately $ 657–2,134 ha/yr for rice and $ 667–2,955 ha/yr for corn. The farmers with higher risk aversion are willing to accept lower economic compensation. Regarding the portfolio, farmers with strong risk aversion had incentives to plant trees on less than 15 % of their land, and could receive up to $1,641 as the percentage increased; and farmers with a lower initial investment in the land had more incentives to plant trees.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X22012262Economic compensationUncertaintyRisk aversionAgroforestryAgroecosystem
spellingShingle Wan-Yu Liu
Yi-Lin Chuang
Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield
Ecological Indicators
Economic compensation
Uncertainty
Risk aversion
Agroforestry
Agroecosystem
title Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield
title_full Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield
title_fullStr Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield
title_short Assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield
title_sort assessing the incentives and financial compensation of agroforestry considering the uncertainty of price and yield
topic Economic compensation
Uncertainty
Risk aversion
Agroforestry
Agroecosystem
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X22012262
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