An Economic Valuation and Mapping of Pollination Services in Ethiopia

An increasing degree of attention is being given to pollination ecosystem service. It has become a commonly mentioned example of how ecosystem services are economically valuable due to its linkage to the world food production. A notable bio-economic approach is applied to estimate the economic value of pollination and the production value loss attributable due to a decline in pollinator using the Ethiopian Annual Agricultural Sample Surveys (AgSS) data for the period 2003–2013. We are aiming to fill the research and knowledge gap with respect to spatial and temporal variation of economic valuation and mapping of pollination services in developing countries, by taking Ethiopia as an example. Result indicated that the mean economic value of pollination is about US$81.3 million for this period. Our estimated crop vulnerability ratio was approximately 8.4%, and pollination service contributes about 4.2% of the total farm gate value. The spatial analysis of our estimates revealed discrete patterns of zonal level variation in Ethiopia. Estimates and spatial analyses of pollination values and vulnerabilities provide vital information to determine suitable pollinator management strategies at different institutional and ecological scales. Accordingly, our findings have policy and management implications on the potential benefit of addressing pollinator decline at local level.