Plastic film mulch use efficiency in agricultural production: a regional analysis in China

While the use of mulch film in agricultural production has contributed to higher yields and improved crop quality in the short term, the long-term accumulation of residual plastic in farmland soils has led to deterioration of soil quality and reduction in crop production. Thus, there is a need to develop efficient management strategies to optimize plastic film mulch use. Under this circumstance, this paper attempted to investigate the technical efficiency of plastic mulch film use by analyzing a provincial-level balanced panel data from China during the period of 1991–2020. Adopting a stochastic frontier production function, this paper showed that a 1% increase in plastic mulch film use raises the per hectare gross output value of farming by 0.14%, and a 1% increase in the increased amount of residual film results in 0.10% decrease in farming productivity. Cropping structure, urbanization, and the educational level of rural labor are major factors affecting the technical inefficiency. Moreover, applying the graphic analysis, this paper compares plastic mulch film use and its technical efficiency in provinces from different regions. The results show that provinces like Xinjiang and Gansu from Northwest China have both the highest level of mulching ratio and intensity of mulch film use. Provinces with relatively lower levels of technical efficiency (less than 0.4) are located in the western part of China. Furthermore, the average technical efficiency of provinces in Northeast China has declined during 1992–2020, while that of provinces in the rest regions has increased during the same period. Based on these findings, policy implications are provided for improving mulch film use efficiency in agricultural production.