Non-Market Valuation of Agricultural Ecosystem Services and Their Integration into Smallholder Decision-Making in the Lake Chad Basin, North East Nigeria

Agricultural ecosystem services including pollination, soil formation, water regulation, and biodiversity maintenance provide significant non-market value to smallholder farming systems, yet these services are consistently undervalued in conventional agricultural economic analysis and policy frameworks. In the Lake Chad Basin of North East Nigeria, where ecosystem degradation and climate stress have reduced agricultural ecosystem service provision, integrating non-market values into smallholder decision-making frameworks is urgently relevant. This study developed and applied a non-market valuation framework integrating choice experiment and contingent valuation methods to estimate ecosystem service values among 400 farming households in Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States. Stated preference data were combined with production function approaches to assess the productivity contributions of ecosystem services. Random parameters logit models were estimated to capture preference heterogeneity. Results revealed significant positive willingness to pay for watershed protection, pollinator habitat conservation, and soil health restoration services, with aggregate annual non-market values substantially exceeding current investment levels. Willingness to pay was positively associated with farm income, education, and ecosystem dependency. Ecosystem service valuation heterogeneity was high, reflecting diverse livelihood contexts. The study makes an original methodological contribution by developing a multi-method non-market valuation framework specific to the Lake Chad Basin smallholder context, recommending payment for ecosystem service scheme designs that reflect local valuation. Keywords: non-market valuation, ecosystem services, Lake Chad Basin, choice experiment, smallholder decision-making.