Bridging Efficiency Gaps in ASEAN Agriculture: A Spatial SBMDEA Approach

Southeast Asia plays a strategic role in global rice production, yet agricultural performance across countries may be shaped not only by internal production conditions but also by spatial interaction mechanisms. This study investigates sustainable agricultural efficiency and spatial dependence across five major ASEAN rice-producing countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and the Philippines over the period 2010–2023. Efficiency is evaluated using the Slacks-Based Measure Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA) framework, which accommodates multiple inputs, desirable outputs, and greenhouse gas emissions as an undesirable output. To capture spatial interdependencies, a distance-based spatial weight matrix is constructed using inverse distance weighting, followed by the estimation of Global Moran’s I to assess spatial autocorrelation. The results indicate that technical efficiency levels are generally high across countries, suggesting relatively effective internal resource utilization, while spatial efficiency exhibits greater variability, implying that production performance cannot be fully interpreted without considering spatial effects. The Moran’s I analysis reveals positive spatial autocorrelation, indicating that efficiency patterns display systematic spatial structures rather than purely independent national dynamics. These findings demonstrate that agricultural efficiency in regionally connected systems reflects both domestic production factors and geographically mediated influences. The study concludes that incorporating spatial dependence into efficiency evaluation provides a more comprehensive understanding of regional agricultural performance and offers a more appropriate analytical basis for policy formulation in interconnected agricultural systems.