The role of ancillary benefits on the value of agricultural soils carbon sequestration programmes: Evidence from a latent class approach to Andalusian olive groves

Agriculture is a key sector for climate change mitigation strategies due to its CO2 sequestration potential. However, in order to increase mitigation changes in current crop and land management are required, which in many cases imply additional costs to farmers. Thus, this research assesses society's willingness to pay using a discrete choice analysis for a soil management programme in Andalusian olive groves identifying different groups based on preference heterogeneity. We identify three groups and characterise them on the basis of socio-demographics. Willingness to pay is higher in areas and for individuals who would directly benefit from the programme. Additionally, the ancillary benefits associated to carbon sequestration capture an important share of the overall benefits. Our results show that soil carbon sequestration in olive groves provides net social value and can be a cheap and cost-effective way of combating climate change. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.