Livelihood Strategy and Farmland Use in Xinping County of Yuanjiang Dry-hot Valley

Methods of participatory rural appraisal and mathematical statistics were adopted to study livelihood diversification, livelihood strategy and farmland use of the four types of farmers in Xinping County of Yuanjiang dry-hot valley with field survey data. The results showed as follows： firstly, as farmers are transforming from pure agriculture to non-agriculture, their agricultural livelihood diversification index will decrease, while non-agricultural livelihood diversification index will increase. In term of livelihood activities, pure agricultural farmers are exclusively engaged in agricultural activities, agricultural-dominant and non-agricultural-dominant farmers are engaged in both agricultural and non-agricultural ones, while non-agricultural farmers are basically engaged in off-farm activities. Secondly, as for crops planted, pure agricultural and agricultural-dominant farmers tend to choose those crops with more investment,shorter growth period and higher value, meanwhile non-agricultural-dominant farmers tend to choose crops with less investment, simpler management and longer growth period. Thirdly, to cope with current problems in farming, pure agricultural farmers will adopt measures such as changing planting structure, maintaining or expanding planting scale, increasing planting investment and renting in more land to promote the development of farming; agriculture-dominant farmers will adopt measures such as changing planting structure, reducing planting scale, maintaining planting investment, renting in and taking back the leased land as well as engaging in non-agricultural activities to overcome the difficulties faced; while non-agricultural-dominant farmers will adopt measures such as reducing both planting scale and investment,changing planting structure and engaging in farmland transfer as well as various offfarm activities to avoid livelihood risks.

Research Progress on Farmers’Livelihood Transformation and Its Ecological Effects——A Review

Farmers’livelihoods and their impacts on the ecosystem are important indicators of human-land relationships.Appropriate livelihood strategies for farmers can meet the needs of human well-being and promote the sustainable use of natural resources,thereby maintaining the health and stability of natural ecosystems.Scholars have carried out a great deal of research on the changes in farmers’livelihoods,as well as the driving mechanisms and ecological effects,but there are still many controversial issues about the ecological effects of farmers’livelihood transformation.On the basis of collecting and sorting out the relevant literature,this paper analyzes the previous research results on the transformation mechanism and ecological effects of farmers’livelihoods,and further explores the coupling relationship.Through the analysis and summary,we find that the choice of farmers’livelihoods is affected by natural factors,subjective willingness and social policies.The transformation of farmers’livelihood changes the ways of production,consumption and resource utilization,which in turn profoundly affects the evolutionary process of the natural ecosystems.This paper establishes a research framework for the livelihood transformation mechanism of farmers and its ecological effect,and finally summarizes two directions that need to be studied further in the future:(1)Exploring the interactions between the driving factors of farmers’livelihood transformation;and(2)Exploring a win-win sustainable mechanism for farmers’livelihood needs and natural resource utilization.

For the Livelihood of Farmers

The government will focus on steady agricultural development and increasing farmers’ incomes this year As in the past five