World’s 24 Biggest Agricultural Producers ‘Eco-Efficiency Considering Undesirable Outputs

Abstract

There is still a lack of studies, which are comparing the eco-efficiency of the world’s biggest agricultural producers, which affect the development of agricultural policy the most, not just EU countries. Therefore, the main goal of this article is to evaluate and compare the eco-efficiency of the world’s 24 biggest agricultural producers in time and space and verifying the hypothesis that all the biggest agriculture producers are eco-efficient. Due to the improvement of technologies, we expect a positive development of agricultural eco-efficiency during the time. Eco-efficiency of the world’s 24 biggest agricultural producers is computed for the years 2007 and 2017, using an output-oriented DEA model with two undesirable outputs. Data are obtained from FAOSTAT for the years 2007 and 2017. 15 countries have an eco-effective agricultural sector in both years 2007 and 2017 and could be considered as sustainable efficient countries. On average the agricultural eco-efficiency is decreasing over time. Based on the eco-efficiency values, the biggest agricultural producers are divided into three eco-efficiency agricultural groups - eco-efficiency leaders, eco-efficiency followers, and eco-efficiency laggards. According to the results, the research hypothesis that all the biggest agriculture producers are eco-efficient is not confirmed. Likewise, in general, technology improvement during time does not lead to a positive development of agricultural eco-efficiency.