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Socioeconomic Determinants of Crop Diversity and Its Effect on Farmer Income in Guangxi, Southern China

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  • Cheng Li

    (Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Rd., Nanning 530004, China)

  • Xinjian Chen

    (School of Business, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Rd., Nanning 530004, China)

  • Aiwu Jiang

    (Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Rd., Nanning 530004, China)

  • Myung-Bok Lee

    (Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Conservation and Resource Utilization, Guangdong Public Laboratory of Wild Animal Conservation and Utilization, Institute of Zoology, Guangdong Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510260, China)

  • Christos Mammides

    (Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Rd., Nanning 530004, China)

  • Eben Goodale

    (Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, 100 Daxue Rd., Nanning 530004, China)

Abstract

Encouraging crop diversity could be a “win–win” for farmers and biodiversity conservation, if having a variety of crops produces the heterogeneity that supports biodiversity, and if multiple crops decrease the risk of farmers to losses due to pests, climatic events or market fluctuations, without strongly reducing their incomes. However, data on the factors that influence the decision to plant multiple crops, and how that affects profit, are needed, especially for East Asia, where these questions have been little studied. We distributed a questionnaire on these issues to 301 farmers in 35 villages in an agricultural area close to the city of Nanning in Guangxi, south China. Crop diversity increased with land size and closeness to the city. We detected no relationship between profit variability and crop diversity, but farmers with greater crop diversity and more land were more profitable, a result driven by several rarely planted but lucrative types of crops. Crop diversity can be a focus for policy to improve farmers’ livelihoods; these policies need to encourage farmers with little land to form cooperatives. Further research is needed to understand the effect of crop diversity on profit variability, and in areas closer to protected areas where biodiversity is higher.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheng Li & Xinjian Chen & Aiwu Jiang & Myung-Bok Lee & Christos Mammides & Eben Goodale, 2021. "Socioeconomic Determinants of Crop Diversity and Its Effect on Farmer Income in Guangxi, Southern China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:336-:d:532578
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