Measuring the Cultivated Land Use Efficiency of the Main Grain-Producing Areas in China under the Constraints of Carbon Emissions and Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution

Hualin Xie, Yanwei Zhang and Yongrok Choi
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Hualin Xie: Institute of Ecological Civilization, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang 330013, China
Yanwei Zhang: Institute of Ecological Civilization, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang 330013, China
Yongrok Choi: Department of International Trade and Regional Studies, Inha University, 100 Inha-ro, Nam-gu, Incheon 402-751, Korea

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-32

Abstract: The carbon emissions and agricultural nonpoint source pollution constraints were incorporated into the input–output index system, and the epsilon-based measure (EBM) super efficiency model and global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index were used to measure the cultivated land use efficiency and changes in the total factor productivity (TFP) of cultivated land use in the main grain-producing areas in China from 1993–2016. The results indicate that: (1) from 1993 to 2016, the cultivated land use efficiency in the main grain-producing areas in China showed a tendency to fluctuate and increase, with obvious stage characteristics; however, the overall level was not high. (2) There is a significant difference in the cultivated land use efficiency under the constraints of carbon emissions and nonpoint source pollution in the main grain-producing areas in the different provinces, and low-efficiency provinces have higher input redundancy and undesired output redundancy than high-efficiency provinces. It can be observed that input redundancy and undesired output redundancy have a significant negative effect on cultivated land use efficiency. (3) The TFP of cultivated land use under the constraints of carbon emissions and nonpoint source pollution in China’s main grain-producing areas is estimated by the GML index. The results show that the TFP of cultivated land use in the main provinces in the main grain-producing regions is greater than 1, indicating that the productivity levels of all the provinces in China’s main grain-producing areas are increasing. From the perspective of the power sources in each province, global pure technological change (GPTC) and global scale technological change (GSTC) are the main driving forces for the TFP of cultivated land use, while global pure efficiency change (GPEC) and global scale efficiency change (GSEC) are the bottlenecks for increasing the TFP of cultivated land use.

Keywords: cultivated land use efficiency; input–output redundancy analysis; environmental constraints; carbon emissions; environmental management; agricultural nonpoint source pollution; EBM super efficiency model; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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