Working Paper: NBER ID: w23496
Authors: Cecilia Bellora; Lodie Blanc; Jean-Marc Bourgeon; Eric Strobl
Abstract: Crop biodiversity has the potential to enhance resistance to strains due to biotic and abiotic factors and to improve crop production and farm revenues. To investigate the effect of crop biodiversity on crop productivity, we build a probabilistic model based on ecological mechanisms to describe crop survival and productivity according to diversity. From this analytic model, we derive reduced forms that are empirically estimated using detailed field data of South African agriculture combined with satellite derived data. Our results confirm that diversity has a positive and significant impact on crop survival odds. We show the consistency of these results with the underlying ecologic and agricultural mechanisms.
Keywords: Crop Biodiversity; Agricultural Productivity; South Africa
JEL Codes: Q15; Q57
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| crop biodiversity (Q57) | crop survival odds (Q15) |
| crop survival odds (Q15) | agricultural productivity (Q11) |
| crop biodiversity (Q57) | agricultural productivity (Q11) |
| biodiversity (Q57) | pest attacks (Q16) |
| biodiversity (Q57) | expected agricultural output (Q11) |
| biodiversity (Q57) | irrigation benefits (Q15) |