Green Total Factor Productivity of Natural Resources in China’s Aggregated AFAH Sector Based on SBM-DEA

Improving natural resource total factor productivity (NTFP) is sential for easing resource and environmental constraints, advancing high-quality development, and supporting China’s dual-carbon goals. This study aims to evaluate the static efficiency, intertemporal productivity change, regional heterogeneity, and hierarchical frontier differences in environmentally adjusted natural resource total factor productivity in China’s aggregated agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery sector from 2008 to 2020. To achieve this aim, we apply a non-radial, non-oriented undesirable-output SBM-DEA model under constant returns to scale, national, regional, and province-specific frontier comparisons. A Global Malmquist–Luenberger index is further used to decompose productivity change into efficiency change and technical change. The analysis shows an overall upward trajectory in national mean NTFP, a persistent eastern advantage, and co-movement among provincial, regional, and national frontier indices, while the dynamic productivity change indicates that productivity improvement was driven mainly by technical change rather than efficiency change. Sensitivity analyses using alternative undesirable-output specifications and cluster-based groupings support the robustness of the main conclusions and inform more targeted discussion and policy implications.