Application of the DEA on the performance evaluation of the agricultural support policy in China

The paper utilizes the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method based on the OECD policy classification to evaluate the performance of the agricultural support policy at the provincial and agricultural commodity levels from the respective viewpoints of agricultural input and output. The analysis at the provincial level mainly focuses on the similarities and differences in the performance of the agricultural support policies between the primary grain-producing areas and the secondary grain-producing areas; at the agricultural commodity level, 17 representative Chinese agricultural commodities are selected and their performance compared. The results are then used to proffer suggestions for the future agricultural support policy optimization in China. The paper found that 50% of the provinces were DEA-efficient, in general, during the study period due to the low overall province-level scale efficiency. The performance values of the secondary grain-producing areas were significantly lower than those of the primary grain-producing areas due to the overall low scale and technical efficiency values. These results show that the support policies for agricultural commodities in China altogether require a further improvement, mainly due to the low technical efficiency of agricultural commodities.