On Rural Agriculture Technical Efficiency in the Mountainous Area in the West of China with Stochastic Frontier Analysis

The paper studies the technical efficiency of rural households' agricultural production in the mountainous areas in Zhouzhi County, Shanxi Province China with stochastic frontier analysis. The results reveal that the average technical efficiency of the local agricultural production is 65.1%. In addition, the output elasticity of land, capital inputs (intermediate materials) and labor inputs are positive, especially the output elasticity of capital is larger. From the results of the technical inefficiency function, the variables of technical training, non-farming business, if there are village or county cadre in the household, and pieces of land have positive effects upon the technical efficiency. However, the household debts show a negative effect on the technical efficiency. Finally the paper proposes some suggestions to improve the technical efficiency such as promoting the surplus labor transfer and the agriculture technology, increasing technical training for farmers, etc.