Economic valuation of pollination ecosystem services in India: An insight from Pusa Field experiments

Balasubramanian Mohan

doi:10.56093/ijas.v96i10.181023

Authors

Balasubramanian Mohan ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijas.v96i10.181023

Keywords:

Honey bees pollination economic value

Abstract

The decline of pollinators globally is increasingly supported by evidence, with potentially profound impacts on agriculture in various regions. To evaluate these effects, we analysed two key aspects: (1) Economic valuation and adequacy of crop pollination services provided by pollinators (2) To quantify the economic, per capita availability and consumer surplus loss that could result from the total disappearance of insect pollinator, incorporating the production dependence ratio on pollinators. Our analysis employed a bioeconomic approach, incorporating the production dependence ratio on pollinators for four categories of crops i.e. vegetables, fruits, oil crops and spices. The total economic value of insect pollination stands at 2.54 lakh crore, representing approximately 18.60% of the total agricultural production value (15 lakh crore) in 2022-23. Nationally, the highest vulnerability was observed in spices (59.27%), followed by vegetables (54.83%), fruits (47.95%), and oil crops (44.14%). Overall, the vulnerability ratio indicates a 48% potential loss in the total economic value of production.

It is important to note that the most vulnerable crops tend to be more sensitive to price fluctuations, with realistic elasticity parameters estimated at 0.1, 1.0, and 1.5. Considering long-term dynamics, it is optimistic to assume that farmers would adapt without incurring significant costs. Under these assumptions, social surplus losses are projected to range between 3.5 lakh crore and 32 lakh crores, depending on elasticity parameters from -0.5 to -1.5. Apart from this data were collected from 20 mustard and citrus plants grown without pesticides, fungicides or any other management interventions at the IARI to exclusively assess the impact of pollinators on flowering and pod development.

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