Spatial Characteristics of Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity at County Level in Hebei Province

The improvement of agricultural green total factor productivity (GTFP) is the key to the construction of ecological civilization. Taking 142 counties in Hebei Province as research objects, non-radial, non-angle, slacks-based measures (SBM) directional distance function and the global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index were used to measure agricultural GTFP at county level in Hebei Province from 2000 to 2016, and spatial autocorrelation methods were used to analyze the global and local spatial characteristics of agricultural GTFP in Hebei Province. Research results show that:In average, the agricultural GTFP increased by 5.42% annually from 2000 to 2016, which was mainly driven by the advancement of green technology. If environmental factors were considered, the agricultural "Porter 'win-win' hypothesis" may be realized. From the perspective of regional distribution, there was a regional unbalance in the growth of agricultural GTFP in Hebei Province. The growth level of Northern Hebei Province was higher than the average level of the province, while the growth levels of Central and Southern areas of Hebei Province were lower than the average level of the province. There was a significant spatial correlation between agricultural GTFP at county level in Hebei Province, but spatial correlation was weakening. The agricultural GTFP showed obvious geographical agglomeration characteristics in Hebei Province. The hot spot area expanded to Central and Southern areas of Hebei Province, and the cold spot area was transferred from the one wing to the two wings of Northern Hebei Province.