Evaluating the impact of agricultural production efficiency on sustainable development goals in coffee‐producing countries in Africa

Abstract

Climate change has directly impacted coffee‐producing regions in Africa. This study uses the two stage Dynamic Network Directional Distance Function (DN‐DDF) and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) methods to evaluate the efficiency and productivity changes of agricultural production and sustainable development in 19 African coffee‐producing countries from 2014 to 2018. According to the empirical results, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Liberia, Uganda, and Zambia have the highest overall efficiency. This study has three main contributions: (1) using a two‐stage model to evaluate the impact of agricultural production efficiency on sustainable development efficiency, (2) using a dynamic model with forest area as a cross‐period variable to reflect the real‐world phenomenon of coffee relying on forest mixed planting, and (3) objectively evaluating the impact of extreme weather on agricultural production by using rainfall as an exogenous variable to address previous research shortcomings. The results of this study can promote the improvement of agricultural production efficiency in African coffee‐producing countries and provide important reference value for sustainable development goals.