Technical Efficiency of Chemical Fertilizer Use and Its Influencing Factors in China’s Rice Production

Zhilu Sun,Xiande Li

doi:10.3390/su13031155

Abstract

Low technical efficiency and excessive usage of chemical fertilizer in grain production is a problem commonly faced by China and many other developing countries, which leads to serious environment pollution and high environmental governance cost. China is the largest rice producing and consuming country, and several kinds of rice are grown in China and all of which are important edible grain. However, there has been no systematic research on kind difference and provincial difference of technical efficiency of chemical fertilizer use (TEFU) for rice production. Using the data of China’s 22 rice production provinces from the China Agricultural Product Cost-Benefit Compilation and the China Statistical Yearbook, this study measures the TEFU for early indica rice, intermediary indica rice, late indica rice, and japonica rice production by using a stochastic frontier production function (SFPF) model, and then analyzes TEFU’s influencing factors using a Tobit model and conducts the robustness check using a panel data fixed effect model. We found that, on average, TEFU for four kinds of rice production were improved significantly during 1997–2018, increasing by 67.70%, 39.93%, 14.76%, and 21.88%, respectively. TEFU for China’s rice production have significant differences among different kinds and production provinces, and still have large improvement potential. Government’s fiscal support to agriculture, agricultural labor productivity, agricultural mechanization, effective irrigation, and implementation of the “Soil Testing and Formulated Fertilization Program” (STFFP) have significant positive impact on TEFU; and natural disaster and fertilizer price have significant negative impact on TEFU.

Highlights

Chemical fertilizer is an important input in grain production, known as the “food”for grain
In order to derive technical efficiency of chemical fertilizer use (TEFU)’s measure equation, by reference to the measure proposed by Reinhard et al [33,34] and Huang et al [42], we model the environmental effect as a conventional input rather than as an undesirable output from a nonradial input-oriented measure perspective, and firstly develop the Translog stochastic frontier production function (SFPF) model as: ln Yit =
Given technical level and other inputs unchanged at observed levels, average Fer for early indica rice, intermediary indica rice, late indica rice, and japonica rice production could be reduced by 34.9%, 40.3%, 37.7%, and 46.2%, respectively in 2018, without affecting yield

Summary

Introduction

Chemical fertilizer is an important input in grain production, known as the “food”for grain. Chemical fertilizer is an important input in grain production, known as the “food”. The average chemical fertilizer usage per hectare in China’s grain production increased from 258.54 kg/ha in 1997 to 362.99 kg/ha in 2014, began to decrease since 2015 and arrived at 340.77 kg/ha in. Compared with 225 kg/ha, the maximum safe usage internationally recognized [2], the intensity of chemical fertilizer in China’s grain production is still in low use efficiency with excessive usage mainly because of poor soil nutrient management [5,6,7], which leads to excessive nutrient pollutants runoff into the natural environment and severe nonpoint source pollution in many Chinese rivers such as the Yangtze rivers and seas such as the Yellow Sea [8,9,10,11], and high environmental governance cost for government [12,13]. Ratio between chemical fertilizer expenditure and usage per hectare in rice production (CNY/kg). Ratio between added-value of agriculture and employed population in agricultural industry (CNY/person)

Methods

Results

Conclusion