Research on Agricultural Technology Efficiency in Consideration of Non-Point Source Pollution: The Data from China

This investigation took the non-point source pollution into the analysis framework of agricultural total factor productivity (TFP), using Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index to measure the agricultural TFP of various regions in China from 2001 to 2011. The results showed that in the past 11 years, the agricultural TFP of China has increased rapidly, and technological progress was the major contributor, rather than the technical efficiency. The average annual growth rate of agricultural TFP when considering the environmental pollution was significantly lower than the value without considering environmental contamination. It indicated that environmental pollution had caused a greater loss of agricultural development efficiency in China. Seen from the comparisons among eastern, central and western regions of China, the agricultural TFP of eastern region was significantly higher than that of the central and western regions. The differences of agricultural TFP in different provinces were significant, the growth of agriculture was mainly dependent on input amount of resources, which resulted in the progressive degradation of agricultural production environment.