| As the important component and main driving force of global change, land use and its change have long been enthusiastically focused. Under the institutional rule, people's response to economic opportunities leads to the change of land use pattern, which means, household livelihoods directly affect land use change. As the basic unit of social economy activities in rural areas, peasant household is the most basic decision-making body of rural economy. From the perspective of the household livelihoods, land use study is good at the thorough and meticulous analysis of human behavior, which is conducive to simulate and analyze micro-level land-use scenarios, and may provide a reference for a comprehensive paradigm about China rural land use study.Since 1980s, the livelihood of rural residents has been dramatically improved in China, and gradually achieved diversification that mainly based on non-agricultural employment, which has brought about land use changes, including the changes of land use types and land-use inputs. However, the existing reports have not revealed the differences of land use between the different types of household's livelihood, and could not answer questions of what is the difference between the land use patterns of the households which have different non-farm degrees, and which type of household has sustainable land-use behaviors. These issues will need to be further studied with a view to provide a scientific basis for China's agricultural and rural development.Located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the ecological and environmental condition of Three-gorge Reservoir District is important to the entire eco-environmental safety of Yangtze River basin. At the same time, limited by its inherent nature of socio-economic conditions, the Three-gorge Reservoir District is a typically ecological fragile area. Unreasonable land use can easily damage its ecological environment and adversely affect the ecological safetyAt present, the research on land use of Three Gorges Reservoir mostly stay at relatively macro-level, and the proposed sustainable land use strategies are not linked with the household livelihoods, which is difficult to implement. The land use discipline in Three Gorges reservoir area from the perspective of the household livelihoods is helpful to propose effective land management measures. Taking three typical villages of Three Gorges Reservoir district as an example, using stratified sampling and the rural participatory assessment methods, based on a large number of household survey, this paper divided the households into 4 types according to the farmer's characteristics: pure-agriculture households(Ⅰ), agriculture-dependent households(Ⅱ), non-farming-dependent households (Ⅲ), and non-agriculture households (Ⅳ). Using tools like GIS and mathematical statistics, based on households'classification, the paper quantitatively analyzed household livelihood strategies, the block level land use, and the impact of livelihood diversification on land use. Then, aiming at improving the household livelihoods and solving the problems of sustainable land use, the paper put forward corresponding countermeasures. A series of meaningful conclusions are as follows:(1) Different household has different livelihood strategies.①Livelihood activity choice. Pure-agriculture households select traditional agriculture(such as grain planting, mustard planting, and livestock breeding); agriculture-dependent households mainly depend on agricultural activities with little non-farm activities like household sideline and short-term working; in non-farming-dependent households, the old, weak, and female are mainly responsible for the cultivation and breeding activities, while the main prime labors force engage in non-farm work; non-agriculture households'labor forces are engaged in non-farm activities completely.②Types of livelihood activities. For the number of agricultural activities,Ⅱ＞Ⅲ＞Ⅰ＞Ⅳ. For non-agricultural activities,Ⅲ＞Ⅱ＞Ⅳ＞Ⅰ, but non-agriculture households have a highest proportion in high threshold non-agricultural activities, followed by non-farming-dependent households, and then agriculture-dependent households.③Livelihood activities income. The income of non-farm activities is higher than that of agricultural activities, while the income of high threshold non-agricultural activities was higher than the income of low-threshold non-farm activities. Thus, with the increase of non-farm level, farmers'household income has a steady upward trend (only non-agriculture household does not meet this trend). Although the non-farm income of non-agriculture households is higher than the other three types of households, because of the fact that more elderly people have an earlier withdrawal from production, there is no agricultural income to supplement, thus the average household income is less than non-farming-dependent households. So, those households face a greater livelihood risk.④Diversification of livelihoods. From the perspectives of reducing livelihood risk and raising living standards, the paper defined livelihood diversification as a complex which is composed by the number of types and incomes of the livelihood activities. On this basis, the order of livelihood diversification level is:Ⅲ＞Ⅳ＞Ⅱ＞Ⅰ.The order of agriculture diversification level isⅡ＞Ⅲ＞Ⅰ＞Ⅳ; and the order of non-agriculture diversification level isⅣ＞Ⅲ＞Ⅱ＞Ⅰ.(2) Different types of households have their inherent characteristics about farmland owning and farmland transference.①Farmland owning. From pure-agriculture households(Ⅰ) to non-agriculture households (Ⅳ), with the less and less dependence of livelihoods on agriculture, the per capita farmland area are showing a decreasing trend; the farmland-plots of agriculture-dependent households is relatively concentrated, into a tablet; the farmland-plots of non-agriculture households have a most fragmented distribution.②armland transference. Non-agriculture households are not engaged in agricultural activities, whose farmland are leased out, with no farmland leasing in; the other three types of households not only have leased farmland but also lease farmland out, and the area of farmland leased is greater than the farmland leased out generally; For agriculture-dependent households, the net area of farmland leased (farmland leased-farmland leased out) is significantly larger than other types of households.(3) Choices of land use type are different among different types of households.①The plot-scale land-use type choice. Farmers'choice for the plot's land-use type is associated with irrigation conditions, the distance of the plot from home, slope and plot size. According to the capacity of labor force and capital which may be put into agricultural production, different types of households chose different crop planting structure.②Households types and land-use types. Agriculture-dependent households(Ⅱ) and non-farming-dependent households (Ⅲ)relatively have more labor forces for agriculture. They often arrange two or three quarters crop cultivation, the land-use types of which is relatively intensive. Because of age structure and lack of labor force, pure-agriculture households prefer one season crop cultivation or leasing farmland out, or abandoning farmland, thus the land-use type is relatively extensive. Non-agriculture households do not pour the labor into agricultural production, for that all farmland have been leased out or abandoned. (4) The different farmland inputs between different types of households.①Land-use intensity. Land-use intensity embodies the number of non-land input in unit time and on per unit area, the order isⅢ＞Ⅱ＞Ⅰ＞Ⅳ. In the 4 different types of households, pure-agriculture households have ageing problem, less labors and agricultural machinery input per unit land, more phosphate, ammonium bicarbonate and other traditional fertilizers. non-farming-dependent households has a large labor input for per unit land, labor structure tends to aging and feminization, application of fertilizers is prior to high prices, provincial labor fertilizer. Agriculture-dependent households'agricultural labor input on per unit farmland are the highest, not only for its quantity but also for its quality; the investment in agricultural machinery is largest, farm fertilizer application amount is also large, with a variety of chemical fertilizer application, dosage moderate. Non-agriculture households have non-land input.②Rational land input judgment. The farmland input of agriculture-dependent households is the most reasonable type. The values of output/input are the largest, and they do not only have the best cost-effectiveness, but also help conserve resources and protect the ecological environment.(5) Through "livelihoods diversification-land use" analysis, it's considered that by responding to economic opportunities, farmers choose different livelihood strategies to achieve livelihoods diversification. Different types of households arrange their labor force and capital differently, which leads to the differentiation of land use patterns. The framework analysis shows that, if farmers have higher levels of agricultural livelihoods diversification, land use could be more intensive. Non-agricultural livelihoods diversification has some negative impact on the land-use intensity.(6) On the premise of ensuring the livelihood diversification, further promoting the transference of labors to non-agricultural units, may be the core of building sustainable livelihoods, and also the fundamental approach to achieve sustainable land use. On the one hand, strengthening the households'non-agricultural activities, non-farm income can be guaranteed by increasing farmer household income (especially cash) and the growing standard of living. On the other hand, the labor forces'further shift to non-agricultural will help reduce the land pressure, which contributes to ecological protection and restoration. At the same time, the land use of non-farming-dependent households which represents the future of village shows non-continuous characteristics, while the land use of agriculture specialized households that are included in agriculture-dependent households is sustainable for its large economic benefits of land use and management of land fertility. Therefore, under the premise of full transferring labor force to non-agricultural units, promoting farmland transference to agriculture specialized households will be a feasible way to achieve regional sustainable land use. |
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