An Empirical Investigation on the Relationship Between Fertilizer Inputs and Production Efficiency in the Main Sugarcane Planting Areas in China

Reducing fertilizer inputs and improving the sustainability of sugarcane are important to the well development of China's sugar industry. In the present study, the DEA-Malmquist model was used to empirically analyze the fertilizer input and production efficiency in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guangdong and Hainan, the four main sugarcane planting provinces in China. Among these four areas, Yunnan had the maximum integrated technical efficiency level during the period from 2012 to 2021. After 2015, Hainan achieved optimum integrated technical efficiency through the growth of scale efficiency. Besides, Guangdong also achieved optimal integrated technical efficiency with increasing scale efficiency of fertilizer inputs after 2019, while Guangxi, the most important sugarcane producer in China, showed the higher redundancy in fertilizer input, accounting for 36.48–45.89% of total applications. Total Factor Productivity analysis revealed that policies have helped the major producing regions to make progress at the frontier of technological progress. However, the growth of technical efficiency change fluctuated more in Guangxi mostly due to its poor natural resource endowment and high local fertilizer costs. In summary, the integrated technical efficiency of fertilizer inputs for sugarcane cultivation in China has improved in the past, and the frontier of technical progress has shifted forward, whereas the technical efficiency of Guangxi, the largest sugarcane producer, has improved to a limited extent. We believe that the promotion of continuous industrial policies is an effective way to change the habit of using chemical fertilizers for sugarcane farmers. This study serves as a reference and a strategic basis for improving the efficiency of the sugarcane industry at the technical and scale levels.