A Comparative Study on Agricultural Production Efficiency Between China and Canada

Abstract

Agricultural production efficiency is vital to the development level and quality of agricultural production. China is at a crucial stage of agricultural transformation, and it is of great significance to measure and calculate agricultural production efficiency by scientific methods. This paper conducts a case study of Chinese agriculture and Canadian agriculture, and measures and calculates the average values of gross agricultural output and the variations of agricultural production efficiency based on data envelopment analysis. According to the research results, firstly, Canadian agricultural production efficiency is much higher than that of China, holding a leading position in the world. Secondly, from 2005 to 2015, the agricultural production efficiency of both China and Canada showed an overall rising trend, but there were obvious upward fluctuations in Chinese agricultural production efficiency. Thirdly, Chinese technical efficiency showed a rise and then a decline while the scale efficiency showed a decline at first and then a rise, and the overall efficiency showed a rise with fluctuations. At the same time, Canadian agriculture technical efficiency, scale efficiency and overall efficiency were all on the rise with fluctuations, and the efficiency values were significantly higher than those of China. Next, the Malmquist indices of both China and Canada appeared to change, but the rate of change of Canada was lower than that of China. Finally, based on Canadian agricultural production experience and combined with China's national conditions, this paper also puts forward the suggestions on improving Chinese agricultural production efficiency.