Household Livelihood Strategies and Dependence on Agriculture in the Mountainous Settlements in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China

Dingde Xu, Jifei Zhang, Golam Rasul, Shaoquan Liu, Fangting Xie, Mengtian Cao and Enlai Liu
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Dingde Xu: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Conservancy, #9, Block 4, Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China
Jifei Zhang: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Conservancy, #9, Block 4, Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China
Shaoquan Liu: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Conservancy, #9, Block 4, Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China
Fangting Xie: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Conservancy, #9, Block 4, Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China
Mengtian Cao: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Conservancy, #9, Block 4, Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China
Enlai Liu: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Conservancy, #9, Block 4, Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: This study explores the extent to which farmers in the Three Gorges Reservoir area remain highly dependent on agriculture despite rapid urbanization and industrialization. The study focuses on the factors that determine a household’s choice of livelihood strategy, with a particular focus on the production of and dependence on agricultural products. Using a sustainable livelihoods approach and survey data from farmers in the Three Gorges Reservoir area in China, the study provides a descriptive statistical analysis and ordinal logistic regression model that shows that close to 56% of households exhibit a low dependence on agriculture. The following variables had a significant influence on livelihood strategy: the maximum years of education of any household member; the age of the household head; the number of laborers in a household; household location; and formal and informal social networks. Regardless of whether the household had children, house value and fixed assets had no significant influence on livelihood strategy. According to the analysis results, we put forward the suggestions that government departments increase investment in infrastructure and make loan policies more favorable for farmers so as to encourage rural able-person to use their social networks to actively establish businesses at migrant destinations.

Keywords: farmers’ sustainable livelihood; agricultural collection; ordinal logistic regression model; rural households; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

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