The low and slowly increasing soybean yield restricts the development of soybean production. Accurate measures of total factor productivity (TFP) for soybean production can be helpful in identifying conditions, institutions or policies that promote soybean production development in China. In this paper, TFP growth for soybean production was estimated for a panel data of 10 major soybean producing provinces from 2005 to 2017. Results reveal that TFP grew at an average rate of 1.3% over the whole period, with technical progress contributing 2.3% and efficiency change providing the other -1.0%. The change of TFP for soybean production over that time, whether increase or decline, was mainly derived by technical change except in three years (2005-2007). Positive TFP growth in the provinces of Liaoning and Inner Mongolia, and negative TFP growth in Hebei and Anhui were mainly driven by efficiency change, specifically scale efficiency change except pure technical efficiency in Liaoning.
KeywordsTotal Factor Productivity (TFP)SoybeanDEA-Malmquist Index
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