What Affects the Livelihood Risk Coping Preferences of Smallholder Farmers? A Case Study from the Eastern Margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China

Abstract

As the smallest livelihood unit in rural areas, farmers often face multiple risks. Rational responses to livelihood risks not only prevent households from falling into poverty, but also improve the sustainability of family livelihoods. This is essential to the sustainable development of rural areas. This paper takes the region located in the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China as an example, using household survey data to analyze farmers’ livelihood risk coping strategies and their key factors through a binary logistic model. The results show that 92.80% of farmers face the shock of multiple livelihood risks. The main livelihood risks of farmers are family capacity building risk, health risk and social risk. When faced with multiple livelihood risks, farmers have the strongest preference to give priority to health risks, followed by family capacity building risks and social risks. Among them, farmers’ health risk coping preferences are stronger in farming areas than those in purely pastoral and farming-pastoral areas. There are differences in the factors for farmers’ preferences for coping with different livelihood risks. Human capital is a key factor for health risk coping preferences. Human capital and social capital are key factors for social risk coping preferences. Social capital is a key factor for family capacity building risk coping preferences. Finally, this paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to provide reference for farmers rationally coping with livelihood risks.