Comparison of Total Factor Productivity of Rice in China and Japan

Abstract

Because rice is one of China’s staple foods, studying the total factor productivity (TFP) of rice is of great importance for China’s food security. There are many similarities between rice production in China and Japan. Japan has achieved an effective supply of high-quality rice under the constraints of insufficient production resources and limited environmental capacity. In this paper, we use the DEA Malmquist index method to comparatively analyze the production efficiency of the rice industry in China and Japan, as well as its trends and changes. The contribution of each decomposition index is analyzed by using grey correlation, and kernel density estimation is used to analyze the dynamic evolution of rice productivity in both countries. The empirical results show that rice TFP in Japan is higher than that in China. Technological progress is an important driver of TFP and is the main reason for the difference in rice TFP between the two countries. The concentration of rice TFP distribution in China is decreasing, and regional differences are increasing, whereas in Japan, the opposite trend is observed, with the proportion of areas of high TFP increasing in both countries.