Research on grain production efficiency in China’s main grain-producing areas from the perspective of grain subsidy

Abstract

As an important foundation of economic and social development, the increase of grain production efficiency contributes to the steady growth of food output. In this paper, from the perspective of food subsidies, the DEA global Malmquist index model is applied to estimate the grain production efficiency of 13 main grain producing regions in China between 2008 and 2017, and the factors affecting the grain production efficiency are analyzed from two dimensions. The study found that from 2008 to 2017, the overall level of total factor productivity of grain production in China’s main grain-producing regions was relatively high and fluctuated, with an average annual rise rate of 1.85%. Discussions from the angle of spatial, the grain production efficiency in China’s main grain-producing areas is characterized by unbalanced spatial development, which is generally manifested as the decreasing trend from the central area to the eastern and western areas. Meanwhile, it can be seen from the decomposition index that the change of TFP of grain production in China’s major grain producing regions mostly decided by the variation of technological progress and pure technical efficiency.