Methodology for estimation of Lithuanian residents’ willingness to pay for agricultural public goods

Abstract

The agricultural sector is the biggest user of land and affects mostly the environment and landscape. Land use, cropstructure, application of good practice and preservation of recreational and cultural objects determine the unique Lithuanian landscape. This study focuses on the application of the special method, which could let to evaluate the agricultural impact on landscape goods and creation of such methodology. The objectives of this paper are to check the applicability of the choice experiments method for estimation of Lithuanian residents’ willingness to pay for agricultural public goods and to create the trusty methodology for further research. CE is a survey-based method implying creation of repetitive choice situations about alternatives of agri-environmental schemes for revealing how much inhabitants of Lithuania are willing to pay for the positive improvements of agricultural landscape. This methodology is focused to reveal how Lithuanian inhabitants value public goods created in agroecosystems and what they think about alternative measures to enhance the economic value of these goods. The results of the pilot survey have shown that the questionnaire was interesting to the respondents, revealing that the valuation of agricultural landscape is in demand by the society. The results of modelling, applying the conditional logit, have shown a good model fit, allowing to use the estimation framework for the main survey and estimate consumers’ willingness to pay for public goods/improvements from agricultural landscape. Applying the constructed and checked methodology, consumers’ willingness to pay for agricultural public goods will be elicited during the main survey. It will contribute to the development of the agri-environmental and climate programme, linked with the landscape management, by relating agri-environmental payments with the real value of agricultural public goods.