Macroeconomics

Agriculture

China

Archaeology

Food security

Economics

Business

Geography

Urbanization

Political science

Agricultural land

Productivity

Sustainable development

Economic growth

Natural resource economics

Agricultural productivity

Agricultural economics

Production (economics)

Stochastic frontier analysis

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

With rapid economic growth and urbanization in China affecting agricultural land, it is of great importance to improve eco-efficiency for sustainable agricultural development to ensure food security. Shandong, as a key agricultural production base in China that experiences accelerated urbanization, was chosen as our case study area. Supported by a large scale natural and socioeconomic data, we estimated land productivity in Shandong, China during 1990–2010 using the Estimation System of Land Production, then analyzed the eco-efficiency based on Stochastic Frontier Analysis. The results showed that land productivity was unevenly distributed in Shandong, with relatively lower values in regions covered by built-up area. The regional eco-efficiency in Shandong was mostly over 0.9, expect for cities located far from the political or economic centers. The results indicated there exists trade-offs between agricultural production and urbanization, and it is necessary to adjust its agricultural technological measures according to local specific conditions to improve eco-efficiency for sustainable agricultural development in Shandong.

Improving eco-efficiency for the sustainable agricultural production: A case study in Shandong, China