Research on the path of improving green production efficiency of tuber crops in China from the perspective of configurationBased on DEA-Malmquist and fsQCA methods

Green production is not only an important driving force for achieving agricultural modernization, but also an important measure for promoting high-quality agricultural development. The efficiency of green agricultural production is an important indicator of the sustainable development of green agriculture. More importantly, as an important staple crop in China, the green production efficiency of tuber crops is an important indicator for promoting stable yield and ensuring a sufficient supply. Simultaneously, it is an important guarantee for achieving green, efficient and sustainable agricultural development. In this study, we selected land input, labor input, fertilizer application, pesticide application, agricultural film use, agricultural diesel use, agricultural machinery power input and water resource input as input indicators, potato yield as expected output, and carbon emissions as unexpected outputs to construct an indicator system for measuring the green production efficiency of tuber crops. The DEA-Malmquist index was used to measure the green production efficiency of tuber crops in 31 provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities; Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan of China were not included in this study) selected in China between 2000 and 2020. Based on this, the evolutionary trend and spatial differences were investigated. Five conditional variables (namely disaster rate, effective irrigation area, financial support for agriculture, labor quality, and urbanization rate) were selected from three aspects (i.e. natural, technological, and social factors). A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method was used to study the improvement pathway of the green production efficiency of tuber crops, and the core, key and fundamental factors for improving the green production efficiency of tuber crops were thoroughly explored. The research results indicate as following. 1) From the perspective of evolutionary trend, the overall growth rate of the green production efficiency of tuber crops in China is relatively stable; however, the growth drivers vary significantly across regions. 2) From the spatial perspective, green production efficiency of tuber crops in China has developed unevenly. The provinces with steady growth of green production efficiency of tuber crops are mainly in the Huanghuai Region and the three northeastern provinces, most of which are concentrated in the northern region of the Qinling-Huaihe River. The distribution of provinces with reduced green production efficiency of tuber crops is relatively scattered, including several in central, southern, and southwestern China. 3) From the perspective of improvement pathway, mainly four types are present: “urbanization level” leading type, “agricultural infrastructure+financial support” leading type, “agricultural infrastructure + education level + technological innovation” driving type, and “education level + urbanization level + technological innovation” driving type. Financial support for agriculture are core factors in increasing the green production efficiency of tuber crops. Technological innovation is critical for increasing the green production efficiency of tuber crops. Human capital is a prerequisite and fundamental guarantee for improving the green production efficiency of tuber crops. Based on this, this article proposes stimulating research and development of novel green technologies, strengthening infrastructure construction, and ensuring agricultural labor to improve green production efficiency of tuber crops in China.