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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1467378
This article is part of the Research Topic Economic Viability In Integrated Crop - Livestock Systems View all 3 articles

Analysis of convergence trends and driving factors of environmental efficiency of pig farming in China

Provisionally accepted
Jingjing Wang Jingjing Wang 1chang‘e zhao chang‘e zhao 2silin chen silin chen 2*
  • 1 University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 2 Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To clarify the development characteristics, differences and convergence trends of environmental efficiency in China's pig industry is helpful to promote the sustainable development of the pig industry. Based on the data of 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China from 2008 to 2020, this paper used the super-SBM model, log (t) test and ordered probit model to estimate the environmental efficiency and convergence trend of pig farming in China, and analyzed the driving factors affecting the convergence trend. The results showed that: (1) In recent years, the environmental efficiency of pig farming in China did not reach the optimal state, and the environmental efficiency of the potential growth region was the highest, reaching 71.6%. Scale efficiency is still the key to improve the environmental efficiency of pig farming, and in the future, it is necessary to focus on improving pure technical efficiency. (2) The environmental efficiency of pig farming across the 30 provinces (including municipalities and autonomous regions) in China converges to four clubs. Most provinces within constrained development region and potential growth region converges to the high-level club, while the disparities in environmental efficiency of pig farming are most pronounced in key development region.(3) The research results of driving factors show that scale level exhibits a "U-shaped" effect on the convergence of environmental efficiency in pig farming towards high-level clubs in China, and most provinces have surpassed inflection point, the scale level of pig farming should be appropriately improved. In addition, improving the quality of the labor force can help the environmental efficiency of pig farming converge to a high-level club.

    Keywords: Environmental efficiency, Convergence trend, Pig farming, Driving factors, Scale level

    Received: 19 Jul 2024; Accepted: 20 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, zhao and chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: silin chen, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, Heilongjiang Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.