IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v9y2020i1p11-d304673.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relationships between Land Management Scale and Livelihood Strategy Selection of Rural Households in China from the Perspective of Family Life Cycle

Author

Listed:
  • Dingde Xu

    (Sichuan Center for Rural Development Research, College of Management of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.)

  • Zhixing Ma

    (College of Management of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.)

  • Xin Deng

    (College of Economics of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.)

  • Yi Liu

    (College of Management of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

  • Kai Huang

    (College of Management of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

  • Wenfeng Zhou

    (College of Management of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

  • Zhuolin Yong

    (College of Management of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

Abstract

Rural households are micro-organizational systems that are composed of different family members. Against a background of fragmented land patterns and massive labor migration in China, it is of great significance for the sustainable development of regional economies to explore the optimal selection of livelihood strategies by rural households. Using a survey containing data from 8031 rural households from 27 provinces in China, this study analyzed the characteristics and spatial distribution trends of the land management scale, family life cycle, and livelihood strategy selection of rural households, and constructed Tobit econometric models to explore the correlations among these factors. The results show: (1) Rural households’ land management scale was primarily small-scale and, as it expanded, the proportion of the total cash income coming from agricultural activities increased. A relative majority of rural households were in the middle period of the family life cycle, and relatively few rural households were in the starting and empty nest periods. The proportion of the total cash income of rural households coming from agricultural pursuits while in the stable and the empty nest periods was relatively large, reaching 40.51% and 38.92%, respectively. In most provinces sampled, rural households’ livelihood strategies were non-agriculturally based, and the land management scale was mainly less than 0.67 ha. (2) Rural households’ land management scale positively correlated with their livelihood strategy selection. When other conditions remained unchanged, with every 1 ha increase in land management scale, the proportion of agricultural cash income in total family cash income increased, on average, by 3.7%. In comparison with rural households in the empty nest period, the proportions of agricultural cash income in the total family cash income of rural households in other family life cycles were relatively small. Specifically, for rural households in the starting, rearing, burden, stable, and maintenance periods, the proportion of agricultural cash income in the total family cash income decreased, on average, by 6.8%, 6.7%, 9.2%, 3.5%, and 16.3%, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Dingde Xu & Zhixing Ma & Xin Deng & Yi Liu & Kai Huang & Wenfeng Zhou & Zhuolin Yong, 2020. "Relationships between Land Management Scale and Livelihood Strategy Selection of Rural Households in China from the Perspective of Family Life Cycle," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:1:p:11-:d:304673
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/1/11/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/1/11/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alain de Janvry & Kyle Emerick & Marco Gonzalez-Navarro & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2015. "Delinking Land Rights from Land Use: Certification and Migration in Mexico," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(10), pages 3125-3149, October.
    2. Euan Phimister, 1995. "Farm Household Production In The Presence Of Restrictions On Debt: Theory And Policy Implications," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 371-380, September.
    3. R B Davies & A R Pickles, 1991. "An Analysis of Housing Careers in Cardiff," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 23(5), pages 629-650, May.
    4. Gordon L. Carriker & Allen M. Featherstone & Ted C. Schroeder, 1993. "Farm Household Consumption Patterns," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 15(1), pages 63-73.
    5. Xiaolan Wang & Li Peng & Dingde Xu & Xuxi Wang, 2019. "Sensitivity of Rural Households’ Livelihood Strategies to Livelihood Capital in Poor Mountainous Areas: An Empirical Analysis in the Upper Reaches of the Min River, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, April.
    6. El-Osta, Hisham S. & Morehart, Mitchell J., 2009. "Welfare Decomposition in the Context of the Life Cycle of Farm Operators: What Does a National Survey Reveal?," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 125-141, October.
    7. Dingde Xu & Xin Deng & Shili Guo & Shaoquan Liu, 2019. "Sensitivity of Livelihood Strategy to Livelihood Capital: An Empirical Investigation Using Nationally Representative Survey Data from Rural China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 113-131, July.
    8. Muhammad Masud & Fatimah Kari & Siti Yahaya & Abul Al-Amin, 2016. "Livelihood Assets and Vulnerability Context of Marine Park Community Development in Malaysia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 771-792, February.
    9. Weidong Wang & Yongqing Dong & Renfu Luo & Yunli Bai & Linxiu Zhang, 2018. "Changes in returns to education for off-farm wage employment: evidence from rural China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 2-19, July.
    10. Perz, Stephen G. & Walker, Robert T., 2002. "Household Life Cycles and Secondary Forest Cover Among Small Farm Colonists in the Amazon," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1009-1027, June.
    11. Sene, Seydina O. & Mishra, Ashock, 2015. "Market Imperfection, Farm Household Consumption Behavior and the Life Cycle Model: Evidence From East Africa," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 206058, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Rui Sun & Jianing Mi & Shu Cao & Xiao Gong, 2019. "Classifying Livelihood Strategies Adopting the Activity Choice Approach in Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-22, May.
    13. Liu, Yansui, 2018. "Introduction to land use and rural sustainability in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-4.
    14. Giannoccaro, Giacomo & Berbel, Julio, 2012. "The Determinants of Farmer’s Intended Behaviour Towards the Adoption of Energy Crops in Southern Spain: an Application of the Classification Tree-Method," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 1(2), pages 1-14, August.
    15. Robert Walker & Stephen Perz & Marcellus Caldas & Luiz Guilherme Teixeira Silva, 2002. "Land Use and Land Cover Change in Forest Frontiers: The Role of Household Life Cycles," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 25(2), pages 169-199, April.
    16. Deng, Xin & Xu, Dingde & Zeng, Miao & Qi, Yanbin, 2019. "Does early-life famine experience impact rural land transfer? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 58-67.
    17. Xu, Dingde & Deng, Xin & Huang, Kai & Liu, Yi & Yong, Zhuolin & Liu, Shaoquan, 2019. "Relationships between labor migration and cropland abandonment in rural China from the perspective of village types," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    18. Dingde Xu & Jifei Zhang & Golam Rasul & Shaoquan Liu & Fangting Xie & Mengtian Cao & Enlai Liu, 2015. "Household Livelihood Strategies and Dependence on Agriculture in the Mountainous Settlements in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-20, April.
    19. Kilian Nasung Atuoye & Roger Antabe & Yujiro Sano & Isaac Luginaah & Jason Bayne, 2019. "Household Income Diversification and Food Insecurity in the Upper West Region of Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 899-920, July.
    20. Shanta Paudel Khatiwada & Wei Deng & Bikash Paudel & Janak Raj Khatiwada & Jifei Zhang & Yi Su, 2017. "Household Livelihood Strategies and Implication for Poverty Reduction in Rural Areas of Central Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-20, April.
    21. El-Osta, Hisham S. & Morehart, Mitchell J., 2009. "Welfare Decomposition in the Context of the Life Cycle of Farm Operators: What Does a National Survey Reveal?," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 38(2), pages 1-17, October.
    22. Gideon Baffoe & Hirotaka Matsuda, 2018. "An Empirical Assessment of Households Livelihood Vulnerability: The Case of Rural Ghana," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 1225-1257, December.
    23. Mutoko, Morgan C. & Hein, Lars & Bartholomeus, Harm, 2014. "Integrated analysis of land use changes and their impacts on agrarian livelihoods in the western highlands of Kenya," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 1-12.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xueping Li & Xingmin Shi, 2022. "Smallholders’ Livelihood Resilience in the Dryland Area of the Yellow River Basin in China from the Perspective of the Family Life Cycle: Based on GeoDetector and LMG Metric Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-19, August.
    2. Zhixing Ma & Ruiping Ran & Dingde Xu, 2023. "The Effect of Peasants Differentiation on Peasants’ Willingness and Behavior Transformation of Land Transfer: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Xin Deng & Zhongcheng Yan & Dingde Xu & Yanbin Qi, 2020. "Land Registration, Adjustment Experience, and Agricultural Machinery Adoption: Empirical Analysis from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-14, March.
    4. Qiang Wang & Liying Yu & Yueling Yang, 2022. "From Fragmentation to Intensification: Land Reform in China’s “New Era”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-17, September.
    5. Wei Wang & Xin Luo & Chongmei Zhang & Jiahao Song & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Can Land Transfer Alleviate the Poverty of the Elderly? Evidence from Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Xue Yang & Shili Guo & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Livelihood Adaptation of Rural Households under Livelihood Stress: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, May.
    7. Dingde Xu & Zhuolin Yong & Xin Deng & Linmei Zhuang & Chen Qing, 2020. "Rural-Urban Migration and its Effect on Land Transfer in Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-15, March.
    8. Huanxin Yang & Kai Huang & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Livelihood Capital and Land Transfer of Different Types of Farmers: Evidence from Panel Data in Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    9. Meng Qu & Kai Zhao & Renhui Zhang & Yuan Gao & Jing Wang, 2022. "Divergence between Willingness and Behavior of Farmers to Purchase Socialized Agricultural Services: From a Heterogeneity Perspective of Land Scale," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, July.
    10. Linwei Wang & Yixin Hu & Rong Kong, 2023. "The Impact of Bancassurance Interaction on the Adoption Behavior of Green Production Technology in Family Farms: Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-26, April.
    11. Jianhua Ren & Hongzhen Lei & Haiyun Ren, 2022. "Livelihood Capital, Ecological Cognition, and Farmers’ Green Production Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Yan Liu & Quaner Wen & Abbas Ali Chandio & Long Chen & Lu Gan, 2022. "Investment Risk Analysis for Green and Sustainable Planning of Rural Family: A Case Study of Tibetan Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Manyu Wang & Min Li & Bei Jin & Lan Yao & Hao Ji, 2021. "Does Livelihood Capital Influence the Livelihood Strategy of Herdsmen? Evidence from Western China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
    14. Sanjib Mondal & Pritam Ghosh & Pratima Rohatgi, 2023. "Village‐level livelihood security: A case study on a wasteland‐dominated forest fringe region of rural India," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 1019-1036, June.
    15. Kai Huang & Xin Deng & Yi Liu & Zhuolin Yong & Dingde Xu, 2020. "Does off-Farm Migration of Female Laborers Inhibit Land Transfer? Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, January.
    16. Dingde Xu & Linmei Zhuang & Xin Deng & Cheng Qing & Zhuolin Yong, 2020. "Media Exposure, Disaster Experience, and Risk Perception of Rural Households in Earthquake-Stricken Areas: Evidence from Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-20, May.
    17. Artemi Cerdà & Jesús Rodrigo-Comino, 2021. "Regional Farmers’ Perception and Societal Issues in Vineyards Affected by High Erosion Rates," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Zhuolin Yong & Linmei Zhuang & Yi Liu & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2020. "Differences in the Disaster-Preparedness Behaviors of the General Public and Professionals: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-12, July.
    19. Hui Yang & Zeng Huang & Zhuoying Fu & Jiayou Dai & Yan Yang & Wei Wang, 2023. "Does Land Transfer Enhance the Sustainable Livelihood of Rural Households? Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, Dingde & Deng, Xin & Huang, Kai & Liu, Yi & Yong, Zhuolin & Liu, Shaoquan, 2019. "Relationships between labor migration and cropland abandonment in rural China from the perspective of village types," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Kai Huang & Xin Deng & Yi Liu & Zhuolin Yong & Dingde Xu, 2020. "Does off-Farm Migration of Female Laborers Inhibit Land Transfer? Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Zhuolin Yong & Linmei Zhuang & Yi Liu & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2020. "Differences in the Disaster-Preparedness Behaviors of the General Public and Professionals: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-12, July.
    4. Dingde Xu & Zhuolin Yong & Xin Deng & Linmei Zhuang & Chen Qing, 2020. "Rural-Urban Migration and its Effect on Land Transfer in Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Xue Yang & Shili Guo & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Livelihood Adaptation of Rural Households under Livelihood Stress: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, May.
    6. Jiquan Peng & Zihao Zhao & Lili Chen, 2022. "The Impact of High-Standard Farmland Construction Policy on Rural Poverty in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Xin Deng & Zhongcheng Yan & Dingde Xu & Yanbin Qi, 2020. "Land Registration, Adjustment Experience, and Agricultural Machinery Adoption: Empirical Analysis from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-14, March.
    8. Deng, Xin & Xu, Dingde & Zeng, Miao & Qi, Yanbin, 2019. "Does Internet use help reduce rural cropland abandonment? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. Rui Min & Hongxin Yang & Xu Mo & Yanbin Qi & Dingde Xu & Xin Deng, 2022. "Does Institutional Social Insurance Cause the Abandonment of Cultivated Land? Evidence from Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-11, January.
    10. Xin Deng & Miao Zeng & Dingde Xu & Feng Wei & Yanbin Qi, 2019. "Household Health and Cropland Abandonment in Rural China: Theoretical Mechanism and Empirical Evidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-13, September.
    11. Yang Liu & Qing Zhang & Qingfu Liu & Yongzhi Yan & Wanxin Hei & Deyong Yu & Jianguo Wu, 2020. "Different Household Livelihood Strategies and Influencing Factors in the Inner Mongolian Grassland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, January.
    12. Hong Chang & Xinchao Liu & Yu Xie & Yahong Liu & Wu Yang & Jianming Niu, 2022. "The Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy Drives the Differentiation of Herders’ Livelihoods in Inner Mongolian Desert Grassland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, August.
    13. Huanxin Yang & Kai Huang & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Livelihood Capital and Land Transfer of Different Types of Farmers: Evidence from Panel Data in Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-21, May.
    14. Sha Cao & Dingde Xu & Yi Liu & Shaoquan Liu, 2019. "The Impact of Rural Labor Migration on Elderly Health from the Perspective of Gender Structure: A Case Study in Western China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-18, October.
    15. Guihua Liu & Liping Yang & Shili Guo & Xin Deng & Jiahao Song & Dingde Xu, 2022. "Land Attachment, Intergenerational Differences and Land Transfer: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-16, May.
    16. Xueling Bao & Fengwan Zhang & Xin Deng & Dingde Xu, 2021. "Can Trust Motivate Farmers to Purchase Natural Disaster Insurance? Evidence from Earthquake-Stricken Areas of Sichuan, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Lei Xu & Shixiang Chen & Shuliu Tian, 2022. "The Mechanism of Land Registration Program on Land Transfer in Rural China: Considering the Effects of Livelihood Security and Agricultural Management Incentives," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-25, August.
    18. Zehua Wang & Fachao Liang & Sheng-Hau Lin, 2023. "Can socially sustainable development be achieved through homestead withdrawal? A hybrid multiple-attributes decision analysis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Zhang, Yuanxia & Halder, Pradipta & Zhang, Xiaoning & Qu, Mei, 2020. "Analyzing the deviation between farmers' Land transfer intention and behavior in China's impoverished mountainous Area: A Logistic-ISM model approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    20. Mohammad Shamsul Hoq & Md. Taj Uddin & Shankar Kumar Raha & Mohammad Ismail Hossain, 2022. "Determinants of households’ livelihood diversification strategies to adapt to natural hazards: evidence from ecologically vulnerable haor region of Bangladesh," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 114(3), pages 3255-3291, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:1:p:11-:d:304673. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.