Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline

TLDR: In this paper, the authors assessed the economic consequences of pollinator decline by measuring the contribution of insect pollination to the world agricultural output economic value, and the vulnerability of world agriculture in the face of the decline of pollinators.

About: This article is published in Ecological Economics.The article was published on 2009-01-15 and is currently open access. It has received 2270 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Pollinator decline & Agricultural productivity.

Figures

Table 1 - Heterogeneity of the dependence ratios reported for the production of some selected crops in regards to insect pollination (extrema are underlined).

Table 5 – Effect of pollinator loss on the capacity to provide food at the world scale for the pollinator-dependent crop categories. The differences between 2005 production and consumption figures are expressed in relative terms as % of the 2005 consumption figures following FAO (http://faostat.fao.org).

Table 4 – Economic vulnerability ratio (in bold) and 2005 production figures in 106 metric tons (in italics) for the pollinator-dependent crop categories among the 16 sub-regions of the world defined

Table 3 – Geographical distribution of crop production value, economic impact of pollinators and vulnerability ratio among the 16 sub-regions of the world defined following FAO (http://faostat.fao.org); the economic value of insect pollination was calculated following [1]; sub-

Table 6 – Regional effect of pollinator loss on the capacity to meet consumption before and after (in bold) total pollinator loss for the three crop categories for which the 2005 overall balance was negative following pollinator loss. The differences between 2005 production and consumption figures are expressed in relative terms as % of the 2005 consumption figures following FAO (http://faostat.fao.org).

Table 7 – Consumer surplus loss at the world scale for 2005 in relation with price elasticity

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline" ?

Vegetables and fruits were the leading crop 11 categories in value of insect pollination with about €50 billion each, followed by edible oil 12 crops, stimulants, nuts and spices. 

Q2. What is the effect of pollinators on the economy?

the loss in output of conventional pollinated crops due to inadequate pollination forms a deadweight loss, net loss to producer and consumers and hence to society. 

Q3. What is the effect of the emergence of organic foods on the health of people?

In 2121 4 The emergence of organic foods and widespread concerns about GM foods has reduced elasticity of substitution for health foods (organic and non GM traditional foods) despite health foods carrying higher prices. 

Q4. What is the common type of pollinator in the United States?

Wild bee pollinators 31 provide the majority of crop visitation across land-use gradients in New Jersey and 32 Pennsylvania, USA. 

Q5. What regions appeared more vulnerable to the decline of pollinators?

Related to their agricultural orientations, some regions appeared more vulnerable 17 like Middle East Asia (15%), Central Asia (14%), East Asia (12%) and non European Union 18 countries (12%). 

Q6. What is the bumblebee's economic and environmental impact?

A century of advances in bumblebee domestication 22 and the economic and environmental aspects of its commercialization for pollination. 

Q7. How much is the elasticity of the crop?

1. Furthermore, since the authors 14 considered the evolution over the long term, the authors can make the optimistic assumption that 15 farmers would adapt without significant cost, and the social surplus losses would be in the 16 range of €310-191 billions for elasticity parameters ranging from –0.8 down to –1.5. 

Q8. What is the realistic elasticity parameter?

Stating that the most vulnerable crops appear to be more sensitive to price 13 variation, the more realistic elasticity parameter is likely to be |E| > 

Q9. What is the debate on the existence of a pollinator paradox?

More specifically, there is an ongoing debate on 5 the existence of a “pollinator paradox” meaning that though crops depend on pollinators, the 6 overall crop yield may not necessarily be as dependent because farmers will take into account 7 pollinator decline in their production management and strategies (Ghazoul, 2007). 

Q10. How much is the contribution of pollinators to the 11 production of crops used for human food?

Using a 10 bioeconomic approach, the authors calculated a world value for the contribution of pollinators to the 11 production of crops used directly for human food of €153 billion, which is about 9.5% of the 12 total value of the production of human food worldwide.