| Since 1999, Beijing has begun to over-exploit ground water with an annual over-exploitation of about 500 million cubic meters, as a result, the plain groundwater depth of Beijing dropped to 24.5 meters on averageat the end of January 2015.As dairy farming is a water-consuming industry that mostly relies on water from underground, studying the efficiency of water-use indairy farming has practical significance. Furthermore, the government attaches great importance to water, clearly pointing out in its 2014 government work report that major planning, major policies and major projects in the future will see water-use efficiency as a key assessment area. Therefore, a water industry research academic boom can be expected. Against this background, the article looks closely into the issue of water-use in dairy farming where research is inadequate, which makes this article forward-looking and theoretically significant.The core of this paper is water-use performance of dairy farming in Beijing. First, through readingliterature, questionnaires, interviews and on-site visits, the article gains an understanding of the current situation of dairy farming water-use in Beijing. Next,through BCC model of data envelopment analysis and total productivity index model, the article analyzes areas including water-use comprehensive technology efficiency, pure technology efficiency, scale efficiency, scale reward features and efficiency change index TFP on three levels, namely, comparative study of national results and selected provincial results, pattern study of the years between 2004 and 2013, as well as case study of 43 demonstration dairy farms in Beijing. The results show thatwater-use efficiency of dairy farms in Beijing is better than the national average with large-scale dairy farms most efficient, however, results of different towns and counties vary greatly. Last, the article summarizes the challenges faced by dairy farms in terms of water-use and proposes solutions. |
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