Cost efficiency measurement and evaluation of soybean main producing areas based on DEA-Malmquist

Soybean, as a crop with high nutritional value in China's food crops, plays an important role in improving diet structure of Chinese residents．However, at present, soybean crops are more dependent on imports, low self-sufficiency rate and high production costs．Therefore, from perspective of economic cost in soybean production process, panel data of soybean production cost in soybean main production areas of China from 2013 to 2020 was selected．Based on input orientation, cost efficiency of soybean production was calculated and exponentially decomposed through DEA model and Malmquist index, and problems in soybean production cost input were analyzed．The research found that, in the past eight years, total factor productivity in main production areas was mostly in trend of constant or increasing marginal returns, but annual growth rate showed a downward trend, and there was redundancy in input and output factors to varying degrees．Main factor contributing to decline in total factor productivity was technological progress．Therefore, measures such as focusing on upgrading scientific and technological level, increasing scientific research investment, optimizating scale of input factors and improving government financial support could be adopted to improve soybean cost efficiency．