Agricultural carbon emission efficiency and influencing factors in Hebei Province

Hebei province is a large agricultural province, facing dual pressures of high level of total carbon emissions and carbon emission intensity. Studying its agricultural carbon emission efficiency is of great significance for achieving low-carbon production in agriculture in Hebei province. Based on the panel data of agricultural production from 2010 to 2022, this study measured the agricultural carbon emission efficiency of 11 cities in Hebei province by using the Super-SBM model with non-expected output. The spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics were analyzed based on the global Factor productivity index (GML) and Theil index. The study further explored the influencing factors affecting agricultural carbon emission efficiency by using the Tobit model. Results showed that during 2010-2022, the overall efficiency of agricultural carbon emissions in Hebei province was fluctuating. It was generally at a high efficiency level, with 3% room for improvement from the efficiency frontier. The improvement of efficiency in the southern Hebei region was the most significant, with an increase of 0.82. The Theil index of agricultural carbon emission efficiency had increased from 0.025 in 2010 to 0.031 in 2022. And the difference in the Theil index within regions was greater than that between regions. This indicated that the differences in carbon emission efficiency between four major regions of eastern, central, northern and southern Hebei were small, and differences within regions were significantly larger than those between regions. The efficiency gap between different cities showed a fluctuating upward trend. The range reached the level of 0.89 by 2013. Although it decreased afterwards, the range had reached 0.86 again by 2016. The technological efficiency and technological progress of 8 cities, namely Qinhuangdao, Chengde, Langfang, Hengshui, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Xingtai and Handan, had both contributed to the improvement of agricultural carbon emission efficiency. While the improvement of emission efficiency in 3 cities, namely Tangshan, Zhangjiakou and Cangzhou, mainly relied on technological progress. The technical efficiency index and technical progress index of agriculture in the province had grown at an average annual rate of 1% and 13%, respectively. Compared to technical efficiency, technological progress was the main factor in improving the efficiency of agricultural carbon emissions in Hebei province. The comprehensive level of agricultural environmental management still needed enhancement. The level of rural economic development, urbanization rate, effective irrigation rate and cultural level of the labor force were significant drivers of improving agricultural carbon emission efficiency. Structure of agricultural industrialization and fertilizer application intensity had a significant negative effect on agricultural carbon emission efficiency.