Study on the Measurement of Agricultural Eco-Efficiency and the Influencing Factors in the Yellow River Basin

Abstract

Based on the background of getting the “Double Carbon” target and the high-quality advancement of the Yellow River basin, the agricultural carbon emissions and agricultural eco-efficiency of the nine provinces in the Yellow River basin from 2011 to 2021 were quantified using a carbon emissions computation model and an Super-SBM Model. ArcGIS was utilized to clarify the spatiotemporal evolution features of both variables, and a panel Tobit model was utilized to conduct empirical assessment of the contributing factors of agricultural eco-efficiency. The results demonstrated that since 2016, the carbon emissions of the Yellow River basin have shown the “high output-low emissions” of characteristics. The agricultural eco-efficiency is overall at a medium to high level and has constantly improved environmentally, but there are significant inter-provincial differences. Empirical examination analysis indicated that the economic development level of the Yellow River basin is positively U-shaped with regard to agricultural eco-efficiency, and rural per capita disposable income, machine tool density, industrialization level, and the regard of field planting of food crops have a substantial effect on agricultural ecological efficiency. Among them, machine tool density shows a negative effect, while other factors show a positive effect. Based on this, a proposal is designed to improve the structure of agricultural input determinants] by pooling determinant endowments, promote the reasonable assignment of agricultural factor resources among provinces, and enhance agricultural ecological efficiency to support the high-quality promote of the Yellow River basin.