Evaluation of total factor productivity and environmental efficiency of agriculture in nine East Asian countries

This study assessed the change in productivity and environmental efficiency of agriculture for nine East Asian countries for the time period from 2002 to 2010. Data were collected and then analysed by data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches, including Malmquist total factor productivity (TFP) index and slacks-based measure (SBM) with the consideration of undesirable outputs. The results showed that there existed relatively large differences in productivity growth and environmental performance in the agricultural sector between countries in the sample. Overall, the countries examined in the present study experienced a decline in TFP due to decreases in technical efficiency. Taiwan, Japan, and Korea were found to show growths in productivity and fully efficient environmental performances throughout the study period, while Thailand was identified as having the lowest environmental efficiency score. Therefore, agriculture production and operation models in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea could serve as good references for the other six countries.