Building a Business Case for Investment in Soil Information

Product Information

Soil information is valuable, but the economic rationale for public funding of soil information – especially large scale mapping programs – appears to be poorly understood and/or articulated at present.

Public investment in soil information needs to be strongly linked to market failure and public good arguments. A value chain concept and economic principles enable us to identify the following areas in which market failure arguments could be used in support of a ‘business case’ for government investment in soil information.