Oasis Farmers' Livelihood Adaptation And Differentiation Under The Influence Of Water System Reform

A series of policy was proposed because of natural environmental degradation in ecologically vulnerable areas,such as "returning farmland to forest","ecological migrants","grazing prohibition" and so on,though promoting ecological restoration,it influenced farmers'livelihood significantly which depend on natural resources.To adapt natural resource reduction and policy,these farmers' livelihood differentiate into various types.So,it is important for the reformed villages to explore how the polices influenced farmer's livelihood and what is the vital factors affecting differentiation of farmer's livelihood as well as its driving mechanism.Minqin,an inner county in northwest of China,experienced great policy reforms due to the vulnerable ecology.This paper mainly focus on water system reform of Minqin,collecting data concerning its social policy and farmer's livelihood and applying sustainable livelihood framework to compare livelihood status before and after policy reform.Furthermore,how farmers changing their livelihoods to adapt the water system reform was discussed,besides,the vital factors causing livelihood differentiation was recognized by regression model,based on which,its corresponding driving mechanism can be summarized as follows:?Farmers suffered considerately from problems caused by water system reform,such as farmland reduction,water price increase,extreme lack of domestic water and surplus labor growth,so,following government's guidance and their own subjective thinking,they take relative measures——facilities agriculture,drinking water project,planting characteristic fruit trees,working away from hometown et.al.to adapt these pressures.?Water system reform brought changes both to farmer's livelihoods and livelihood capital.On the one hand,with development of non-agriculture and decline of traditional agriculture,livelihoods diversified gradually into five types-traditional agriculture production,facilities agriculture production,working away from hometown,non-agriculture production + working away from hometown and mixed type.On the other hand,farmer's natural capital and financial capital show a decreasing trend,however,physical capital,social capital as well as the total livelihood capital index presented a growing trend in different degrees respectively.Overall,natural capital,human capital and physical capital are insufficient,and social capital,financial capital are abundant.Different livelihoods relates to different capital shifts.?Key variables that influence farmer's livelihood differentiation include agricultural facilities amount,farmer,s awareness of policy,effective irrigation scale,livestock volume,arable land area per capita,neighborhood trust,the size of arable land reduction,available lenders,in return,different livelihood strategies were affected by specific factors.Family's overall labor amount,available lenders,arable land per capita,agricultural water expenditure ratio,adults'educational level,water resources and fixed assets are the key factors influencing farmers' livelihood output,and each factor imposes different impacts on direction and degree.?Farmer's livelihood differentiation were developed by multiple factors,with water system reform as a trigger,livelihood capital as a foundation and farmer's rational choice as a determinant.In addition,family members' education,health,support ratio and other social issues play important roles.This study follows a logical line of pressure-adaptation-differentiation and development,providing a case for researches concerning policies' influence on farmer's livelihoods and a reference to relative studies.At the same time,with combination of this study's conclusions and research area's practical status,problems of farmer's livelihood development are summarized and some countermeasures as well as suggestions for the livelihood sustainable development are proposed,offering references for livelihood development policy making in the region.