IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i22p15362-d977134.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Zero Growth of Fertilizer Action on Ecological Efficiency of Grain Production in China under the Background of Carbon Emission Reduction

Author

Listed:
  • Zhongfang Zhang

    (College of Food and Materials, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing 210003, China)

  • Lijun Hou

    (School of Business Administration, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing 210003, China)

  • Yuhao Qian

    (College of Food and Materials, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing 210003, China)

  • Xing Wan

    (School of Business Administration, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing 210003, China)

Abstract

At present, the problem of non-point source pollution and carbon emissions caused by excessive application of fertilizer is increasingly serious and has caused damage to the ecological environment. The “zero growth of fertilizer use by 2020 action plan” was introduced to solve the related ecological and environmental problems. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 1998 to 2020, this paper used the super efficiency SBM model to measure the ecological efficiency of grain production in China, and further verified the mediating effect of fertilizer application amount on the effect of zero growth of fertilizer on the ecological efficiency of grain production using the mediating effect model. The results showed that (1) zero growth of fertilizer action had a significant effect on the ecological efficiency of grain production. That is, the implementation of zero growth of fertilizer action can help improve the ecological efficiency of grain production. (2) The application amount of fertilizer played a mediating role in the mechanism of the effect of zero growth of fertilizer action on the ecological efficiency of grain production. (3) The implementation of the zero growth of fertilizer action effectively reduced the amount of fertilizer application and reduced fertilizer non-point source pollution and carbon emissions, which improved the ecological efficiency of grain production. According to the results of empirical research, to promote the sustainable development of agricultural production, more relevant ecological and environmental protection policies should be introduced and relevant subsidies should be increased.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhongfang Zhang & Lijun Hou & Yuhao Qian & Xing Wan, 2022. "Effect of Zero Growth of Fertilizer Action on Ecological Efficiency of Grain Production in China under the Background of Carbon Emission Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-16, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15362-:d:977134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15362/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15362/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hui Xiang & Ya Hui Wang & Qi Qi Huang & Qing Yuan Yang, 2020. "How Much Is the Eco-Efficiency of Agricultural Production in West China? Evidence from the Village Level Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-15, June.
    2. Bing Xia & Suocheng Dong & Yu Li & Zehong Li & Dongqi Sun & Wenbiao Zhang & Wenlong Li, 2021. "Evolution Characters and Influencing Factors of Regional Eco-Efficiency in a Developing Country: Evidence from Mongolia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Xiaomin Yu & Haigang Li & Reiner Doluschitz, 2020. "Towards Sustainable Management of Mineral Fertilizers in China: An Integrative Analysis and Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, August.
    4. Eva Richterová & Martin Richter & Zlata Sojková, 2021. "Regional eco-efficiency of the agricultural sector in V4 regions, its dynamics in time and decomposition on the technological and pure technical eco-efficiency change," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 16(3), pages 553-576, September.
    5. Abdoulaye, Tahirou & Sanders, John H., 2005. "New Technologies, Marketing Strategies And Public Policy For Traditional Food Crops: Millet In Niger," Staff Papers 28670, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    6. Guoyong Wu & Yu Xie & Haoxin Li & Noman Riaz, 2022. "Agricultural Ecological Efficiency under the Carbon Emissions Trading System in China: A Spatial Difference-in-Difference Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-13, April.
    7. Yin Su & Qifang Zheng & Shenghai Liao, 2022. "Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Water Ecological Footprint and Countermeasures for Water Sustainability in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-16, August.
    8. Heyuan You & Xiaoling Zhang, 2016. "Ecoefficiency of Intensive Agricultural Production and Its Influencing Factors in China: An Application of DEA-Tobit Analysis," Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, Hindawi, vol. 2016, pages 1-14, March.
    9. Zhao, Weijia & Cui, Xin & Wang, Chunfeng & Wu, Ji (George) & He, Feng, 2022. "Couple-based leadership and default risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 439-463.
    10. Tahirou Abdoulaye & John Sanders, 2005. "New Technologies, Marketing Strategies and Public Policy for Traditional Food Crops: Millet in Niger," Working Papers 05-07, Purdue University, College of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    11. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kun Han & Jingyu Yang & Chao Liu, 2025. "Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Evolution Patterns and Driving Factors of Various Planting Structures in Henan Province Based on Mixed-Pixel Decomposition Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Yankang Hu & Hongchao Yu & Xinglong Yang, 2023. "Can Rural Human Capital Improve Agricultural Ecological Efficiency? Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yankang Hu & Hongchao Yu & Xinglong Yang, 2023. "Can Rural Human Capital Improve Agricultural Ecological Efficiency? Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.
    2. Jiantao Peng & Yihua Liu & Chong Xu & Debao Chen, 2024. "Unveiling the Patterns and Drivers of Ecological Efficiency in Chinese Cities: A Comprehensive Study Using Super-Efficiency Slacks-Based Measure and Geographically Weighted Regression Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-23, April.
    3. Wenqiang Jiang & Baocai Su & Shuisheng Fan, 2023. "Spatial Disequilibrium and Dynamic Evolution of Eco-Efficiency in China’s Tea Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-15, June.
    4. Kuang, Bing & Lu, Xinhai & Zhou, Min & Chen, Danling, 2020. "Provincial cultivated land use efficiency in China: Empirical analysis based on the SBM-DEA model with carbon emissions considered," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Guoyong Wu & Noman Riaz & Rui Dong, 2023. "China’s agricultural ecological efficiency and spatial spillover effect," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 3073-3098, April.
    6. Franz R. Hahn, 2007. "Determinants of Bank Efficiency in Europe. Assessing Bank Performance Across Markets," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 31499.
    7. Chen, Ya & Pan, Yongbin & Liu, Haoxiang & Wu, Huaqing & Deng, Guangwei, 2023. "Efficiency analysis of Chinese universities with shared inputs: An aggregated two-stage network DEA approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Kristiaan Kerstens & Jafar Sadeghi & Ignace Van de Woestyne, 2020. "Plant capacity notions in a non-parametric framework: a brief review and new graph or non-oriented plant capacities," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 288(2), pages 837-860, May.
    9. Chen, Yufeng & Ni, Liangfu & Liu, Kelong, 2021. "Does China's new energy vehicle industry innovate efficiently? A three-stage dynamic network slacks-based measure approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Jing, Peng & Li, Shuohan & Wang, Minglu, 2025. "Digital empowerment, industry chain integration and corporate energy efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    11. Mohammad Nourani & Qian Long Kweh & Evelyn Shyamala Devadason & V.G.R. Chandran, 2020. "A decomposition analysis of managerial efficiency for the insurance companies: A data envelopment analysis approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 885-901, September.
    12. Honma, Satoshi, 2012. "Environmental and economic efficiencies in the Asia-Pacific region," MPRA Paper 43361, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Mohammad Tavassoli & Mahsa Ghandehari & Masoud Taherinia, 2023. "Rang-adjusted measure: modelling and computational aspects from internal and external perspectives for network DEA," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1-34, December.
    14. Jia Li & Yahong Zheng & Bing Liu & Yanyi Chen & Zhihang Zhong & Chenyu Dong & Chaoqun Wang, 2024. "The Synergistic Relationship between Low-Carbon Development of Road Freight Transport and Its Economic Efficiency—A Case Study of Wuhan, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-21, March.
    15. Yongqi Feng & Haolin Zhang & Yung-ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang, 2021. "Innovation efficiency and the impact of the institutional quality: a cross-country analysis using the two-stage meta-frontier dynamic network DEA model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3091-3129, April.
    16. Eder, Andreas, 2024. "The effect of land fragmentation on risk and technical efficiency of crop farms," FORLand Working Papers 31 (2024), Humboldt University Berlin, DFG Research Unit 2569 FORLand "Agricultural Land Markets – Efficiency and Regulation".
    17. Yu-Chuan Chen & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang & Tai-Yu Lin, 2023. "Sustainable Development, Government Efficiency, and People’s Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1549-1578, April.
    18. Ruijing Zheng & Yu Cheng & Haimeng Liu & Wei Chen & Xiaodong Chen & Yaping Wang, 2022. "The Spatiotemporal Distribution and Drivers of Urban Carbon Emission Efficiency: The Role of Technological Innovation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-22, July.
    19. Junlong Li & Chuangneng Cai & Feng Zhang, 2020. "Assessment of Ecological Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability of the Minjiang-Source in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, June.
    20. Xianpu Xu & Tieshan Zhao, 2024. "Towards Green Development: Exploring the Impact of Housing Price Bubbles on Regional Green Innovation Efficiency Based on Chinese Provincial Panel Data Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-23, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15362-:d:977134. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.