On the Productive Value of Crop Biodiversity: Evidence from the Highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper investigates the productive value of crop biodiversity, with an application to a farming system in the Tigray region in the highlands of Ethiopia. We examine a general measure of the productive value of crop biodiversity and its components. Using Ethiopian farm-level data, agroecosystem productivity is investigated empirically. The analysis gives estimates of the value of diversity and its components. The value of crop biodiversity is estimated to be positive. The complementarity component is found to be large and statistically significant: it is the main source of crop biodiversity value in this agroecosystem of Ethiopia. However, the convexity component is negative, indicating that nonconvexity contributes to reducing the value of crop biodiversity. (JEL D61, Q18)