How Productive Services Affect Apple Production Technical Efficiency: Promote or Inhibit?

Abstract

Agricultural productive services provide a new entry point to solve the “labor dilemma” and contributes to the sustainable development of the apple industry. In this study, we establish a random frontier model with the Translog production function to analyze the influence of productive services on the technical efficiency of apple production based on a microscopic survey data of 661 apple farmers. The results indicate that the purchasing proportions of productive services are obviously different among the different links of apple production, while those among different regions are not obvious. Overall, productive services have a positive effect on improving the technical efficiency of apple production, but productive services in different links have a different effect; specifically, productive services in the bagging link have a positive effect on the technical efficiency of apple production, productive services in the pest controlling link have a negative effect, and productive services in other links have no significant effect. We suggest that policymakers should promote the orderly development of agricultural productive services, focus on improving the popularity of productive services in bagging links, and improve the quality of productive services in the pest control link.