Farmers living in a state of poverty in semi-arid areas are the main victims of drought. They suffer most from drought, which makes it particularly important to assess their capacity to cope with it. The present study developed a new approach for such assessment. Famers' resources and initiatives to deal with drought were evaluated, and appropriate coping strategies are proposed by analyzing the differences between the coping capacities of two categories of farmers; tenants (with large holdings) and smallholders. Tenants' capacity to cope with drought was 1.7 times that of smallholders. Also, tenants showed greater initiative during droughts, whereas smallholders made greater efforts in preparing for droughts. Farmers' resources were positively correlated to the degree of their initiative (correlation coefficient = 0.49). Farmers showed greater initiative when they had larger holdings and were less dependent on agricultural income. The state should give more financial support to subsidy-dependent farmers and encourage smallholderswhose major income comes from cropsto augment their income through livestock husbandry. Such a policy would prove more conducive to increasing the capacity of not only local farmers but also of the entire region to cope with droughts and to promote sustainable development of local agriculture.
1.Beijing Normal Univ, MOE, Key Lab Environm Change & Nat Disaster, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China 2.Beijing Normal Univ, Fac Geog Sci, Beijing 100875, Peoples R China 3.Hebei Normal Univ, Coll Resources & Environm Sci, Shijiazhuang 050024, Hebei, Peoples R China 4.Katholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Geog, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium 5.Katholieke Univ Leuven, Tourism Fac Sci, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium
Recommended Citation:
Guo, Hao,Wu, Yaoyao,Shang, Yanrui,et al. Quantifying Farmers' Initiatives and Capacity to Cope with Drought: A Case Study of Xinghe County in Semi-Arid China[J]. SUSTAINABILITY,2019-01-01,11(7)