Livelihood diversification and cropland use pattern in agro-pastoral mountainous region of eastern Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

This study examined livelihood diversification and cropland use pattern in Keerma village, located in Jinchuan County, eastern Tibetan Plateau. Through stratified random sampling survey, participatory rural appraisal, investigation of households' plots and statistical methods, 63 households and 272 cropland plots were systemically investigated and sampled. The results show: (1) Different types of household have variety livelihood strategies, portfolio and income. Livelihood diversification and introducing and expanding off-farm activities can be the future trend, whereas, adverse natural environment, socio-economic conditions and peasants' capabilities together affect sustainable livelihood and land use. (2) Each livelihood strategy has its own impact on land use, mainly affecting land use type and land use intensification level. (3) Diversification into off-farm activities could be the key of building sustainable livelihood and the essential approach of realizing sustainable land use in the region.

An explanation of labor migration and grain output growth: Findings of a case study in eastern Tibetan Plateau

“…On one hand, this study is consistent with previous case studies that peasants substitute capital and technology for labor (Taylor et al, 1999;Zhang et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2009a;Hao et al, 2013;Li et al, 2013). Apart from the substituting of capital and technology for labor, we find more measures adopted by the peasants to offset labor shortage, including labor ex-change in busy seasons, flexible crop arrangement and land transfer between households.…”

“…At the regional scale, we have studied the area's land cover changes (Yan et al, 2005a), the driving mechanisms and spatial simulation of land-use changes (Bai et al, 2004;Bai et al, 2005;Yan et al, 2005b), and the farmer and nomad livelihood diversification scenarios (Yan et al, 2010a). At the village scale, we have studied farmer livelihoods and the land use of two out of the four villages in 2005/2005: Keerma village (Zhang et al, 2008) and Danzhamu village (Yan et al, 2009). In the Danzhamu case, we investigated livelihood strategy and land use between the collective system and the household responsibility system, and found crop structure adjustment, decrease of labor input, increase of chemical fertilizer input since the 1980s.…”

“…In the Danzhamu case, we investigated livelihood strategy and land use between the collective system and the household responsibility system, and found crop structure adjustment, decrease of labor input, increase of chemical fertilizer input since the 1980s. In the Keerma case, Zhang et al (2008) reported that Jinchuan county is located in the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau between 31°04′ to 31°58′N and 101°13′ to 102°19′E, covering an area of 5524 km 2 . The landform in Jinchuan county tilts gradually from northwest to southeast with a few mountains of above 4000 m height.…”

“…This method, tracking study, is particularly suited for our study since we have mastered the knowledge based on the field surveys taken in 2005and 2006(Zhang et al, 2008Yan et al, 2009). We conducted detailed sample surveys on the differences in rural household conditions in the four typical villages.…”

“…However, other case studies find that emigration of agricultural laborers has caused the marginalization of agricultural land, which has resulted in arable land abandonment and decrease in labor intensity, thus posing the additional challenge of ensuring food security (Liu and Li, 2006;Chen et al, 2009a;Tian et al, 2009;Xin and Li, 2009;Tian et al, 2010). A few studies have reported measures adopted to deal with labor shortage, such as substituting capital and technology for labor (Zhang et al, 2008;Chen et al, 2009a;Hao et al, 2013) and land transfer between households to mitigate land abandonment (Yao, 2000;Kung, 2002;Jin and Deininger, 2007). However, as of date, there remains a lack of comprehensive research which quantitatively examines the relationship between labor migration and grain output growth on household scale.…”