Bernard Lehmann

Multifunctional Agriculture and the Preservation of Environmental Benefits

SummaryWe investigate environmental aspects of agriculture from a welfare economic perspective and show that efficiency prices of agricultural and forest land include important amenity and non-use values that exhibit the character of undepletable externalities. To achieve a social optimum these must be internalised, while taking equity concerns into account. We propose compensation of farmers and forest managers according to the marginal external benefit of their land use and a combination of charges and subsidies to improve rural water quality. This is consistent with efficiency requirements and would not cause additional market distortions. Moreover, it would leave the property rights on the land with the farmers and assign the right on clean air and water to the consumers.

Valuation of agricultural land-use scenarios with choice experiments: a political market share approach

This paper evaluates the preferences of cantonal politicians for future agricultural land-use scenarios in a rural region of the Swiss lowlands. We combine results from a choice experiment with the outcome of a mathematical programming model. As a result, we define cost-efficient future land-use scenarios which would find acceptance in the cantonal parliament. Our study indicates that the level of agricultural production associated with the extent of environmental goods and services in these land-use scenarios is a crucial issue in the political acceptance and thus in the design of green payments for agriculture.