Study on the Influence of Population Urbanization on Agricultural Eco-Efficiency and on Agricultural Eco-Efficiency Remeasuring in China

Abstract

China is still in the growth period of population urbanization; meanwhile, it is a large agricultural country where high-quality agricultural development requires a high agro-ecological efficiency level. Based on panel data from 31 provinces and cities in China from 2001 to 2020, the paper constructs an agricultural eco-efficiency evaluation index system that is more in line with China’s current agricultural production situation. Meanwhile, the undesired output super-efficiency SBM model is used to measure it. Combining the PVAR and panel Tobit models, the paper explores the effect of population urbanization on agro-ecological efficiency and the interaction mechanism in China. The results show that: (1) In the whole of China, and the western region of China in particular, agro-ecological efficiency tended to decrease during the research time, and ended up at an inefficient level. In the eastern and northeastern regions, agro-ecological efficiency has been at a moderate level for a long time, while in the central region it has fluctuated more and is now at a low level of efficiency. (2) Increases and decreases in population urbanization have both had a significant negative impact on agro-ecological efficiency, but the economic development and improved transportation infrastructure brought by population urbanization have had a positive impact on agro-ecological efficiency. (3) The paper’s results provide the current agro-ecological efficiency situation in each province of China, and clarify the causal effect of population urbanization on agro-ecological efficiency, which can provide a reference basis for subsequent policy formulation and for further research to be carried out.

Study with agricultural system resilience and Agro‐ecological efficiency synergistic evolutionary in China

“…To avoid duplication of study content and ineffective studies, the paper is directly used the existing research results of Chen et al. (2022), taking the number of people working in agriculture, the total sown area of crops, the effective irrigated area, the total power of agricultural machinery, the amount of fertilizer applied, the amount of pesticide used, the amount of agricultural film used and the number of cattle stocked at the end of the year as the eight inputs of labour, land, irrigation, machinery power, fertilizer, pesticide, agricultural film and livestock respectively. Total agricultural output value and total food production were used as desired outputs, while agricultural carbon emissions and agricultural surface pollution were used as non‐desired outputs.…”

“…Since the eco‐efficiency concept proposed (Willard, 2002), when extended to the agriculture field, it represented the value ratio of the agricultural production output to the negative environmental impacts such as carbon emissions and surface pollution (or positive environmental impacts such as carbon sequestration in agriculture) resulting from the production process (Akbar et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2022; Liu & Cheng, 2022). Improving agricultural eco‐efficiency, imply reducing the negative environmental agriculture output or increasing the positive environmental agriculture output, can effectively measure the agricultural ecology level, achieve resource conservation and environmental protection and promote high‐quality and sustainable agricultural development.…”

Spatial Disequilibrium and Dynamic Evolution of Eco-Efficiency in China’s Tea Industry

“…Park contends that improving food security cannot only be addressed from the perspective of eco-efficiency [20]. Regarding research methods, the super-efficiency DEA-Malmquist model, the DEA-SBM model, and the DEA and SFA model based on GME are more frequently employed [21][22][23]. At the same time, innovative efforts have been made to analyze urban eco-efficiency with the hybrid Trigonometric Envelopment Analysis for Ideal Solutions (TEA-IS) model [24].…”

Spatial Association Network and Driving Factors of Agricultural Eco-Efficiency in the Hanjiang River Basin, China

“…There is a general trend of declining agricultural efficiency levels in other cities, especially Suizhou City, Tianmen City, and Xiantao City. Analyzing the reasons for the decline in agricultural eco-efficiency level from the perspective of input-output relaxation variables, it may be due to production congestion caused by excessive input factors, which leads to a decrease in output, i.e., the factor crowding phenomenon, making production factors unable to be fully and effectively utilized [15,47]. The obvious redundancy of diesel, pesticide, and agricultural film input in these areas indicates that the input of agricultural means of production is not fully utilized, which leads to an increase in agricultural non-point source pollution and carbon emissions, thus worsening agricultural ecological efficiency.…”