Policy Approaches And Technical Strategy Regarding Improving Farmers’ Livelihood And Ecosystem Conservation In The Loess Plateau

Fanners livelihood improvement and ecological conservation in the ecosystem system management in arid regions are two relatively independent aspects, while two closely related aspects, is the key scientific problems dryland development paradigm (DDP) and coupling human and natural systems (CHANS). This study use the social investigation, landscape methods of remote sensing and field observation which in the Yuzhong county, Gansu province of loess plateau. To analyze the agriculture policies which has implementationed, returning farmland to forest and grass, terraces and catchment agriculture, etc. Analyzes data integration, development dryland development paradigm (DDP) and coupling human and natural systems (CHANS) to provide an case study in theory.The mainly conclusions of research is the following:1) The build terraces and grain for green project(GFGP) is an effective measures to prevention and control soil loss, in the aspect of the improvement of the ecological environment plays an important role. In Zhonglianchuan, the terraces built reached 100%, while 71.4% of farmers participated in the returning farmland to GFGP, and through the survey, the phenomenon of deforestation basically did not appear.2) The soil quality of terraced land was increased and then decreased with the duration of use years in the Loess Plateau. Terraced to slope farmland production increased more than 20-40% yield, fanners from subsistence previously difficult to solve can now sell the crop, which is a great progress.3) The implementation of GFGP in the Loess Plateau should be consideration the local conditions, returning farmland to pasture on soil restoration better than the Grain. The soil quality is significantly better than cropland to grassland conversion to forest land soil quality, soil quality and increases forest to time hardly changed. So the Loess Plateau Forest proposal should also grass-based.4) In the policies and dry land in the process of the implementation and popularization of agricultural technology, the fanner’s main source of income is changed by planting before gradually to the work. And the income of work amount greater than the other source of income, with 93.8% of the farmers the income of work more than 10000 yuan.5) The implementation of agricultural policy has effectively improve the livelihoods of farmers in the semi-arid region of the Loess Plateau. The health insurance coverage reached 97.3% in Zhonglianchuan,Yuzhong County, the compulsory education comprehensive is all covered, the cellar is also reached 99.6%, and the films mulching is to reach 100%, and terraced land crop yields increase 20-40%, the subsidies of GFGP played a certain role for low-income households.6) The degree of state support for agricultural policy is the main factor affecting farmers selective. Although the survey 78.1 percentage of households considered livestock farming income than fanning income to be higher, but due to the large range of state subsidies for farming subsidies more comprehensive, so there are still 65.2% of households will choose fanning.7) Implement to agricultural policy, which effectively relieve the pressure of population on the environment. State subsidies for agricultural machinery, agricultural machinery makes use of small-scale expansion of less labor required per unit area, surplus labor movement to urban areas, reducing pressure on the environment while increasing family income.The research mainly from the household survey, through the analysis of the implementation of favorable policies and rainfed agricultural technology promotion process to explore the mechanism of the loess plateau ecological conservation. Farmers livelihood is the key point of the loess plateau ecological conservation, and the implementation of the policies and rainfed agricultural technology promotion has very important significance to improve the farmers livelihoods.