The role of ES in farming is investigated in the current
study by calculating its economic value under organic and conventional arable systems in Canterbury, New Zealand by
using a ‘bottom-up’ approach comprising field experiments to
quantify ES. It focuses on one sector (arable farming) of an
‘engineered’ ecosystem (agriculture). The work attributes
economic values to a suite of ES which were quantified experimentally,
in contrast with earlier evaluations of ES, which
have used ‘value transfer’ approaches. The total economic
value of ES in arable land in the province of Canterbury, New
Zealand is also calculated here by using ‘bottom-up’ approach
(Sandhu et al., 2005) and extrapolation using GIS techniques. It
also provides information on the change in the economic
value of ES in a scenario in which conventional farming shifts
to organic farming.