Are citizens willing to pay for agricultural multifunctionality?

Abstract

Agricultural multifunctionality is the recognition of the joint exercise of economic, environmental, and social functions by the agricultural sector. In order to make the concept operative for the design of public policies, it is necessary to estimate the social demand for such functions. The main objective of this article is to present an empirical application in this sense. For this purpose, we have adopted the agricultural system of cereal steppes in Tierra de Campos in Spain as a case study. The economic valuation technique used is the Choice Experiment. The results suggest the existence of a significant demand for the different functions, although the demand is heterogeneous, depending on the socioeconomic characteristics of the individuals surveyed. © 2007 International Association of Agricultural Economists.