Files
Abstract
Since many countries already pursue a range of environmental objectives for agriculture, in
particular the supply of positive externalities or public goods (e.g., wildlife habitat, water supply
management, provision of landscape amenities) as well as the reduction of negative externalities,
such as soil erosion or water pollution, efforts to reduce GHG emissions may have to be
balanced against other environmental objectives. We examine this problem by considering an
agricultural sector that supplies a positive environmental attribute (landscape amenity) as well as
two negative attributes (GHG emissions and nutrient contamination of ground and surface
water). The sector can also engage in production activities that contribute to reductions in the
concentration of carbon in the atmosphere (carbon sequestration activities). In our model this
involves devoting agricultural land to growing trees (agro-forestry).
We use the model to examine policy choices designed to increase the positive domestic
environmental contribution of agriculture, while at the same time reducing its negative
contribution. We also use the model to examine the implications for achieving domestic
environmental objectives of the imposition of an internationally determined GHG emission
reduction requirement on agriculture. In the case where the socially optimal level of GHG
emissions from agriculture based on the national social damage function for GHG emissions is
below the global command and control target for the country, the levels of subsidies and taxes on
inputs needed to maximize domestic social welfare lead to GHG reductions in excess of the
global target. In contrast, the national social value assigned to the domestic damage due to GHG
emissions could be at odds with the global social value of the damage implicit in the command
and control target level of emission reductions assigned to the country and applied by that
country to agriculture. In this case, domestic social welfare could be improved by allowing for
an additional unit of GHG emissions by the sector. Thus, from a domestic point of view, the
global command and control target level of reductions assigned to the country is too high.
We also argue that the most practical way to achieve multiple environmental objectives,
including GHG mitigation in agriculture is to focus on inputs – specifically how land is used and
what inputs are applied to that land. In this way negative externalities can be reduced and the
supply of positive externalities and public goods can be increased. Since it is unlikely to prove
politically acceptable to use explicit taxes on inputs to correct for negative externalities in
agriculture, a more likely approach is one based on payments for environmental services
designed specifically to translate the non-market values of the environment services into
financial incentives for local actors to provide such services.