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Explora: Environment
and Resource Evaluating agricultural efficiency and sustainability

the corresponding decision cell yields a corresponding crops harvested in the current year and excluding the area
efficiency value that does not exceed one. of crops harvested in the following year. 21
3.1.2. Robustness and applicability discussion Effective irrigated area is a critical metric that reflects the
construction of China’s agricultural water conservancy.
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The characteristics of the data distribution may influence It is the area of arable land that is equipped with water
the efficacy of the DEA method in practice. The following sources, uniform terrain, and irrigation facilities, allowing
issues should be taken into account to guarantee the for normal irrigation in normal years.
veracity of the analysis:
• Normality assumption: To guarantee the reliability The total power of agricultural machinery is the
and stability of the assessment results, DEA models aggregate of the designated power of all agricultural
typically presume that the data distribution follows a machinery, which is categorized as diesel engine power,
normal distribution. In the event that the data exhibit petrol engine power, electric motor power, and other
a substantial deviation from the normal distribution, mechanical power based on the source of energy. 23
data transformation or other robustness methods may The entire reservoir capacity is the entire scale of
be implemented. reservoir construction, which is determined by the
• Collinearity issue: The efficiency measurement may be aggregate of dead storage capacity, booster capacity, and
distorted if there is a significant covariance between flood transfer capacity (excluding the duplicated portion
the input and output variables. Consequently, to with booster capacity). 24
enhance the model’s accuracy, it is imperative to
identify and eradicate any significant covariance. The unadulterated quantity of agricultural fertilizer
• Robustness analyses: To guarantee that the model’s application is the total amount of fertilizer used in agricultural
results are not substantially influenced by fluctuations production during the present year, which includes nitrogen,
in the data, robustness tests are implemented by phosphorus, potash, and compound fertilizers. 25
altering various assumptions regarding the data (e.g., 3.2.2. Indicators of output
sample size or minor fluctuations in indicator values).
The total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal
The aforementioned methodology guarantees that husbandry, and fisheries is the monetary value of all
the DEA-BCC model is applied accurately to measure products of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and
the efficacy of agricultural production and to provide fisheries, as well as related supportive service activities.
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dependable analyses. This value reflects the total scale of production over a
3.2. Variable selection and data sources specific period.
The input indicators in this paper consist of land inputs, Value added by agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry,
machinery, and water inputs, and fertilizer inputs. and fisheries refers to the contribution of these sectors
Indicators of land input encompass the total sown area over a specified period. It is a component of GDP and is
of crops and the effective irrigated area. Indicators of determined by subtracting intermediate inputs; the cost
machinery and water input encompass the total power of intermediate goods and services used in the production
of agricultural machinery and the total capacity of process from the total value of the output. 27
reservoirs. Indicators of fertilizer input encompass Food production refers to the aggregate quantity of
the pure amount of agricultural fertilizer deployed. food produced by an agricultural producer in a calendar
The output indicators include the value of agricultural year, which encompasses cereals, potatoes, and pulses,
output and crop production, specifically the aggregate categorized by crop variety and harvest season. 28
value of agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry, and
fishery output, the value added by agriculture, forestry, Fruit production refers to the quantity of fresh fruits
animal husbandry, and fishery, as well as cereal and fruit produced by an agricultural producer during a calendar
production. The pertinent experimental data of the input year, excluding untamed fruits, including trees, vines,
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and output indicators are illustrated in Tables 1 and 2. perennial vegetative fruits, and fruiting melons.
3.2.1. Indicators of input 4. Empirical studies of the effects of
implementation
The total sown area of crops is the total area of sown
or transplanted crops on all land (cultivated or non- The BCC model with variable returns to scale (VRS) is
cultivated) that should be harvested by the agricultural used to investigate the agricultural efficiency evaluation
producer in the calendar year, including the sown area of problem in Shaanxi Province from the perspective

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2025) 6 doi: 10.36922/eer.5129