| Summary: | Aiming to inspect the water use-related situation in the Heihe River Basin, we used a three-stage data envelopment analysis to examine agricultural water use efficiency (WUE) and related issues in the Heihe River Basin from 2004 to 2012. This method calculates technical efficiency (TE), pure technical efficiency (PTE), and scale efficiency (SE). Results show that water use-related efficiency varies according to scale. TE and SE decreased in the study area, while PTE increased. This means that the effects of pure technology on improving overall technology are very limited, and scale adjustment is vitally important to the agricultural production area in the Heihe River Basin. The results provide recommendations for decision-makers to plan the efficient use of water resources in arid and semiarid areas; in addition, this method will contribute to calculations of water use-related efficiency.
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