Soil quality evaluation for irrigated agroecological zones of Punjab, Pakistan: The Luenberger indicator approach
利用巴基斯坦旁遮普省三个灌溉农业生态区的作物产量、非土壤投入和土壤剖面数据，构建Luenberger土壤质量指标，发现土壤质量与作物产量存在递减回报，且对电导率和钾含量最敏感，可为土地定价和资源保护决策提供参考。
Abstract This article describes the construction of the Luenberger soil quality indicator (SQI) using data on crop yield, non‐soil inputs, and soil profile from three irrigated agroecological zones of Punjab, Pakistan, namely, rice–wheat, maize–wheat–mix, and cotton–mix zones. Plot level data are used to construct a soil quality indicator by estimating directional distance functions within a data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework. We find that the SQI and crop yield relationships exhibit diminishing returns to improving soil quality levels. Using the constructed SQI values, we estimate linear regression models to generate weights that could be used directly to aggregate individual soil attributes into soil quality indicators without the necessity of fitting a frontier to the crop production data. For wheat and rice production, we find that SQI is most sensitive to changes in soil electrical conductivity (EC) and potassium (K). The SQI has direct relevance for site‐specific decision‐making problems where policymakers need to price land resources and conservation services to achieve agricultural and environmental goals.