Abstract
This study evaluated the agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) of 77 counties and districts in Jiangsu Province from 1999 to 2018 using the slack-based measure (SBM) of efficiency in data envelopment analysis (DEA) (SBM-DEA) and analyzed its spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influencing factors. We found that 1) the overall AEE, pure technology efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE) exhibited a fluctuating downward trend. AEE exhibited a significantly positive spatial association and an increasingly widening regional inequality. 2) AEE featured the “high south” and “low north” spatial pattern, with the high-value regions concentrated around the Taihu Lake plain region in southern Jiangsu Province (Sunan) and low-value regions scattered across most of the northern Jiangsu Province (Subei) cities. The high-high and low-low spatial association types further confirmed the existence of the north–south agglomeration pattern. 3) PTE and SE exhibited a similar “high south” and “low north” spatial pattern to that of AEE. The areas with the growth trends of AEE, PTE, and SE were clustered in Xuzhou and Nanjing city and in the bordering regions between Yangzhou and the Huai’an city, and also between Changzhou and the Wuxi city. 4) Excessive redundant input and use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers, agricultural diesel, labor, land, and agricultural carbon emissions, all have been the primary factors affecting Jiangsu’s AEE. Irrigation also considerably affected AEE, while mechanical power and agricultural film have minimal effects. The majority of counties and districts in the Subei, central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), and Ningzhen Yang Hilly region experienced excessive usage of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, agricultural diesel, labor, and land. The findings can improve understanding of the spatial association effect and underlying impediment of AEE and can further help policymakers promoting agricultural eco-efficiency.
Highlights
The rapid development of China’s agricultural industry has led to severe agricultural pollution caused by the massive application of chemical fertilizers, agricultural plastic films, and pesticides
The geometric mean value for the annual pure technology efficiency (PTE) was 0.730, while it was 0.876. Both values are above the annual mean value of Agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE), and the value of SE was greater than that of PTE, suggesting that the improvement of AEE was dependent on scale efficiency
The trends of temporal change of AEE, PTE, and SE show that the slow growth of AEE in Jiangsu province for the past 20 yr has been caused by the negative growth in PTE
Summary
The rapid development of China’s agricultural industry has led to severe agricultural pollution caused by the massive application of chemical fertilizers, agricultural plastic films, and pesticides. The province has declined into high material inputs, high carbon emissions, and low efficiency to promote agricultural yield (Du, 2010; Tian et al, 2014; Xiong et al, 2020) This has increased emissions of agricultural ammonia (NH3), nitrogen (N), carbon dioxide (CO2), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen, and total phosphorus emissions (Liu et al, 2014; Guo et al, 2017; Huang et al, 2020). These agricultural byproducts have exerted significant adverse effects on soil, water, air, and neurobehavioral functions (Huang et al, 2007; Zhang et al, 2016) These phenomena hamper the goals of sustainable agriculture aimed at conserving land and water resources, using environmentally non-degrading production techniques. Identifying green agricultural performance and its underlying impediment factors is crucial for supporting the agricultural transformation and development of Jiangsu province from the quantitative growth stage towards green and efficient development
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