Spatio-temporal variation and relationship between agricultural efficiency and irrigation intensity in a semi-arid region of India

A surging population in Karnataka State,a semi-arid region in India,poses a threat to both food security and livelihood sustainability,necessitating a concentrated effort to bolster agricultural efficiency and achieve United Naton’s Sustainable Development Goal 2(zero hunger).Therefore,in order to address the pressing issue of food scarcity in Karnataka,this study meticulously examined the spatio-temporal variation of agricultural efficiency and irrigation intensity in Karnataka,uncovering its significant dependence of agricultural efficiency on irrigation intensity.Specifically,this study used a one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA)to ascertain significant differences in the means of agricultural efficiency and irrigation intensity during 2004-2005 and 2018-2019.This study showed that the maximum improvement in agricultural efficiency index was recorded in Belgaum(40.24),Gulbarga(24.77),and Yadgir districts(22.92)between 2004-2005 and 2018-2019,which indicated the progressing trend and better scope for agriculture extension.On the contrary,some districts expressed threat(a decline of above 20.00 of agricultural efficiency index)and needed special care for the improvement of agricultural efficiency in four northern districts(Bagalkot,Bidar,Raichur,and Bijapur),three southern districts(Chitradurga,Chikballapur and Hassan),and two southern districts(Koppal and Gadag)in Karnataka.During 2004-2005,irrigation intensity varied from 3.19%to 56.39%,with the lowest irrigation intensity in Kodagu District and the highest irrigation intensity in Shimoga District.During 2018-2019,irrigation intensity changed from 0.77%to 72.77%,with the lowest irrigation intensity in Kodagu District and the highest in Dakshin Kannad District.Moreover,the research scrutinized the complex relationship between agricultural efficiency and irrigation intensity,with the correlation coefficient increased from 0.162 during 2004-2005 to 0.255 during 2018-2019.It implies that in both periods,a low positive correlation existed between these two variables.Over time,several factors(high-yield seeds and chemical fertilizers)other than irrigation intensity gradually became essential for agricultural efficiency.This research offers a wealth of valuable insights for regional planners and policy-makers contending with comparable challenges in various regions of India and other developing countries.

Nonfarm employment, agricultural machinery service purchase and agricultural production efficiency:An empirical study based on China's major wheat-producing areas

Based on the cross-sectional data of the survey conducted in China's main wheat producing areas at the end of 2019,this paper uses the translog production function model to estimate agricultural technical efficiency,and studies the relationship between nonfarm employment,agricultural machinery service purchase and agricultural production efficiency.The results show that the household non-agricultural employment ratio and non-agricultural income have a significant positive impact on the purchase of agricultural machinery services.In addition to the effect of scale efficiency,non-agricultural employment does not have a significant impact on agricultural technical efficiency,and labor transfer does not have a significant negative impact on agricultural production.

Evaluation and Influence Factor of Green Efficiency of China’s Agricultural Innovation from the Perspective of Technical Transformation

Agricultural innovation is important for the green transformation of agriculture.Based on the perspective of technology transformation,this paper builds a theoretical analysis framework and evaluation index system for green efficiency of agricultural innovation,and discusses the evolution laws and influencing factors of the green efficiency of China’s agricultural innovation from 2005 to 2017 utilizing the DEA model,Malmquist index,and Tobit regression analysis.The results show that:1)The overall green efficiency of China’s agricultural innovation is not high,the green efficiency of agricultural innovation in eastern China is mainly driven by pure technical efficiency,while that in central and western China is mainly driven by the scale efficiency.The green efficiency of agricultural innovation shows significant spatial differences,and the low efficiency and relatively low-efficiency regions moved to central and southeastern China.2)Technical progress is the main force affecting the change of green total factor productivity of China’s agricultural innovation,seeing a trend of decrease followed by an increase.Pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency exhibit an increasing-decreasing trend,and gradually transform into key factors that restrict the improvement of the green total factor productivity of agricultural innovation.3)Agricultural technologies’diffusion,absorption,and implementation are three influencing factors of the green efficiency of agricultural innovation.The local level of informatization,the number of agricultural technicians in enterprises and institutions,average education level of residents,and the level of agricultural mechanization have positive impacts on the promotion of the green efficiency of agricultural innovation,promoting the diffusion,absorption and implementation of agricultural innovation technology can significantly improve the green efficiency of agricultural innovation.

Research on Efficiency of Financial Supports in Agricultural Industrialization in China

The agricultural industry development in China has been very successful, but there exist some problems, such as weak financial support strength. With the help of DEA-Malmquist index method, this paper evaluated the efficiency of the agricultural industrialization＇s financial supports, made a deep study of its influencing factors, which have an extremely important influence on the perfect agricultural industrialization＇s development.

Dynamic change of agricultural energy efficiency and its influencing factors in China

In order to practice the concept of‘lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets’and promote the green development of agriculture,it is necessary to improve the efficiency of agricultural energy utilization.Based on the panel data of 28 provinces from 1995 to 2018,this paper calculated China’s agricultural energy input from two categories of direct energy and indirect energy,and used EBM(Epsilon-based Measure)mixed distance function model to measure the energy efficiency of agriculture in China.The nuclear density function and spatial autocorrelation were used to analyze the dynamic evolution of agricultural energy efficiency,and the dynamic panel model was used to analyze the influencing factors of agricultural energy efficiency.The results showed that:①From 1995 to 2018,the total agricultural energy input had increased year by year in China,with an average annual growth rate of 2%.Energy input structure changed from indirect energy-based to direct energy-based.Agricultural energy efficiency showed an evolutionary trend of‘rising-stagnating-rising rapidly’in China.The agricultural energy efficiency was generally low in China,and there was a large space for improvement in agricultural energy efficiency.②From 1995 to 2018,the average annual growth rate of agricultural energy efficiency in the eastern,central and western regions was 2.7%,1.9%and 1.4%respectively.In 2018,the agricultural energy efficiency in the eastern,central and western regions was 0.81,0.71 and 0.59 respectively.The gap between regions was expanding rapidly,and the agricultural energy efficiency in the central and western regions needed to be improved.③From 1995 to 2018,the agricultural energy efficiency of each province was polarized and the absolute gap was widened.There was obvious improvement in agricultural energy efficiency in Guangdong,Shandong,Jiangxi,Jiangsu,Liaoning and Tianjin,while the agricultural energy efficiency of Xinjiang,Guizhou,Zhejiang,Shanghai,and Inner Mongolia deteriorated.④From 1995 to 2018,there was no global spatial correlation of China’s agricultural energy efficiency.However,local‘high-high’concentration gradually appeared in the eastern region since 2010.⑤The first lag of energy efficiency had a significant positive impact on agricultural energy efficiency,and agricultural energy efficiency improvement had a time lag.The level of human capital,per capita net income of farmers and the level of urbanizaton had a significant positive impact on agricultural energy efficiency.The disaster rate,the level of development of secondary and tertiary industries,and the level of opening up had a significant negative impact on agricultural energy efficiency.In the implementation of the strategy of rural revitalization,we should focus on the central and western regions,take the cultivation of professional farmers as the key,focus on improving agricultural production conditions,enhance the level of cooperation between regions,exert the leading role of the secondary and tertiary industries,and enhance the ability of agricultural disaster prevention and mitigation.

Do ICTs Boost Agricultural Productivity?

Based on panel data from the Rural Fixed Point Survey of the Ministry of Agriculture over the period 2004-2016 and supplementary survey data on information and communications technology(ICT)applications in the countryside,this paper employs the difference in differences(DID)method to analyze the effects of ICT applications on rural households’agricultural total factor productivity(TFP)with mobile phone signal,internet and 3G mobile network connections as indicators,and decomposes and evaluates the constituent factors.Our findings reveal a positive effect of ICTs on rural households’TFP,which primarily stemmed from rising agricultural technical efficiency.However,ICTs exerted no significant effect on agricultural technical progress during this paper’s data period due to limited rural human capital.These findings are consistent with robustness test results based on counterfactual and matching methods.

Calculation of Agricultural Production Efficiency Based on a Three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis Model and Analysis of the Spatial-temporal Characteristics: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt

In response to the strategic call for the " Great Protection" of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and to fulfill the important historical tasks assigned by the state to the provinces and cities of the area,the Yangtze River Economic Belt is adjusting the agricultural industry structure,optimizing the input-output ratio,and ensuring stable and sustainable agricultural production. Based on the combination of the three-stage Data Envelopment Analysis( DEA) model and cluster analysis,this study examined the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2008 to 2018 to measure its agricultural production efficiency and to analyze its temporal and spatial characteristics. Studies showed that exogenous environmental factors significantly( P < 5%) impacted agricultural production efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Zone,and there were temporal and spatial differences. These included:(1) after excluding environmental factors,the overall agricultural production efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Zone had improved. Sichuan Province and Jiangsu Province were at the forefront of efficiency,whereas the agricultural production efficiency of Shanghai had declined obviously.(2) The agricultural production efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt varied year by year,with fluctuating development. The middle reaches of the Yangtze River had advanced agricultural production efficiency more than the upstream and downstream regions,and the agricultural production efficiency of the individual provinces did not match their economic and social development.(3) Increases in labor,land,irrigation,and other input factors increased agriculture production efficiency,and there was no correlation between fiscal investment,per capita gross domestic product( GDP) and agricultural production efficiency,while the disaster-affected area had a significantly negative impact on agricultural production efficiency.

County urbanization,agricultural servitization,and agricultural eco-efficiency:Statistical verification based on Chongqing

Agricultural ecologicalization is an important starting point to promote sustainable and high-quality development of agriculture.Based on the panel data of 37 districts(counties)in Chongqing from 2004 to 2019,the DDF-GML index method is used to measure the agricultural ecological efficiency of Chongqing.Based on the analysis of the interaction mechanism of urbanization,agricultural service,and agricultural ecological efficiency,with the help of the PVAR model verifies the relationship between the three.The study found that urbanization,agricultural service,and agricultural ecological efficiency have significant inertia effects and path dependence,especially agricultural ecological efficiency can provide more than 90%of its variance contribution,while urbanization and agricultural ecological efficiency have a significant impact on agricultural ecological efficiency.The influence will become weaker and weaker over time,obeying the law of diminishing margins.Therefore,to promote the development of agricultural ecologicalization,we must rely on the clean,green,and ecological development of agricultural production itself.At the same time,we also need to further improve the urbanization and agricultural service modernization system to maximize the benefits of agriculture.

Engineering crop nutrient efficiency for sustainable agriculture

Increasing crop yields can provide food,animal feed, bioenergy feedstocks and biomaterials to meet increasing global demand; however, the methods used to increase yield can negatively affect sustainability. For example, application of excess fertilizer can generate and maintain high yields but also increases input costs and contributes to environmental damage through eutrophication, soil acidification and air pollution. Improving crop nutrient efficiency can improve agricultural sustainability by increasing yield while decreasing input costs and harmful environmental effects. Here, we review the mechanisms of nutrient efficiency(primarily for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and iron) and breeding strategies for improving this trait, along with the role of regulation of gene expression in enhancing crop nutrient efficiency to increase yields. We focus on the importance of root system architecture to improve nutrient acquisition efficiency, as well as the contributions of mineral translocation, remobilization and metabolic efficiency to nutrient utilization efficiency.

A data envelopment analysis of agricultural technical efficiency of Northwest Arid Areas in China

Severe resource shortage and waste of resource in agricultural production make it necessary to assess efficiency to increase productivity with high efficiency and ensure sustainable agricultural development. This paper adopted an input-oriented data envelopment analysis(DEA) method with the assumption of variable returns to scale to evaluate agricultural production efficiency of 100 major irrigation districts in Northwest China in 2010.Major findings of this paper were as follows: firstly, the average value of total technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of those irrigation districts in Northwest China were 0.770, 0.825 and 0.931,respectively; secondly, 30% of irrigation districts were technically efficient, while 42% and 32% of them showed pure technical and scale efficiency respectively. Among inefficient decision-making units, total technical efficiency score varied from 0.313 to 0.966, showing significant geographical differences, but geographical differences of pure technical efficiency was more consistent with that of total technical efficiency; thirdly, input redundancy was evident. Inputs of agricultural population, irrigation area,green water, blue water, consumption of fertilizer and agricultural machinery could be reduced by 34.88%,40.19%, 43.85%, 47.10%, 41.53% and 42.21% respectively without reducing agricultural outputs. Furthermore,irrigation area, green water and blue water had relatively high slack movement though Northwest China which is short of water resources. Based on these results, this paper drew the following conclusions: First, there is huge potential for Northwest China to improve its agricultural production efficiency, and agro-technology not input scale had greater influence on improvement. Second, farmers needed proper guidance in order to reduce agricultural inputs and it is time to centralize agricultural management for overall agricultural inputs regulation and control.

Does Security of Land Operational Rights Matter for the Improvement of Agricultural Production Efficiency under the Collective Ownership in China?

Under the"separation of three rights"policy,the impact of security of land operationalrights on agricultural production efficiency has attracted much attention in recentyears.Data envelopment analysis and mediation effect analysis were applied to 888family farms run by new-type agricultural operators from Songjiang to identify themechanism of the effect of land operational rights security on agricultural productionefficiency through long-term investment.The results show that greater security of landoperational rights generally increased agricultural production efficiency.Approximately37.94 percent of the impact could be explained by long-term investment.The resultsalso indicate that significant heterogeneity exists in the effect of land operational rightssecurity on agricultural production efficiency at various levels of the family farms'efficiency distributions.lt is suggested that government should legalize land operationalrights and give them a status equal to those of households'contractual rights and landownership rights in China's future land tenure reform.