Evaluation of Agricultural Productivity in China Based on DEA

The application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in economic system is virtually probing resource allocation problems. The study employs DEA theory to evaluate agricultural production efficiency of 31 provinces and cities in China in 2008. Via empirical study on input-output data of agricultural production, this paper concludes that Beijing and five other provinces have reached the optimal scale of agricultural production and their investment structure is effective as well; Due to investment in agricultural production structure is not reasonable, Shandong and 26 other provinces and cities is still relatively low in agricultural productivity. Overall, modernization degree of agricultural production in China is not very high, scale efficiency and technical efficiency need to be improved, to further increase investment in agricultural technology and modernization.