The Technical Efficiency of Tea Production in Different-scale Famers and the Analysis of Influence Factors: A Case Study from Zhejiang Province

Zhejiang Province is a large province cultivating tea, thus raising tea yield and technical efficiency of production is essential for the income increment of tea farmers. This article uses the SFA model to analyze different planting scales and their corresponding technical efficiencies of production in Zhejiang Province. The results revealed that: 1) the scale of a tea farmer presented an inverted "U" type with technical efficiency, indicating that the technical efficiency of tea production with the scale of cultivation showed a trend of first increase and then reduction. The average output will increase by 14.79% without counting the effects of technical inefficiencies. 2) There were differences in technical efficiency of tea production under different tea-planting scales, and the technical efficiency of medium- scale tea farmer's production was the highest. 3) The influence directions and degrees of different factors on the technical efficiency of production under different tea-planting scales varied.