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.

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.

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.