Livelihood risk and coping strategies of farmers in alpine pastoral areas in China: A case of Xiahe County, Gannan Prefecture

Livelihood risk is an important perspective for studying the livelihood of farmers. The main goal of such research is to improve the resilience of farmers to livelihood risk by assessing common risks and their influencing factors. In this study, we used Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and a binary-logistic model to investigate the main livelihood risks and the coping strategies of different types of farm households in Xiahe County, Gannan Prefecture, China. We also quantitatively analyzed the main factors affecting the choice of risk response strategy, and explored countermeasures to improve the ability of farm households to defend against risk. The results showed: 1) Employment, health and education risks were the main livelihood risks that farmers faced in the development process. Health risks had the greatest impact on the sustainable development of farmers. 2) From the perspective of coping strategies, becoming a migrant worker, asking relatives and friends for help, getting bank loans and waiting for government relief were the main coping strategies adopted by farmers, but becoming a migrant worker was also affected by the health risk and education risk. 3) According to the impact factors of farmers’ risk coping strategies, becoming a migrant worker was the most important risk coping strategy adopted by all types of farmers. Farmers’ livelihood capital had no significant influence on risk coping. Natural capital was a key factor influencing the strategy of asking relatives and friends for help, and had a significant positive influence. Financial capital, natural capital and social capital were important factors influencing the strategy of borrowing from banks. Among these, financial capital and natural capital had significant positive influence, while social capital had significant negative influence. Financial capital was a key factor affecting the strategy of waiting for relief: farmers with lower financial capital were more eager to wait for relief. Based on the above findings, this study proposed the following countermeasures and suggestions to improve the ability of farmers to resist livelihood risk in alpine pastoral areas: 1) Construction of a community financial mutual assistance platform, which can be an effective way to improve the financial capital of farmers. 2) Development of basic education and career training, which are important to improve farmers’ education and thus to reduce the unemployment risk. 3) Development of public medical and health services in rural areas and rural medical insurance to improve farmers’ ability to cope with health risks.