Study On The Impact Of Typical Rocky Desertification Control Project On Rural Household Livelihood In Huanjiang County

The Rocky Desertification Control Project(RDCP)is a major ecological restoration and livelihood project in the karst areas of Southwest China,which could prevent soil erosion,restore ecological environment,promote social and economic development,and improve households’ livelihood.The impact of the RDCP is a major issue worthy of attention.In this paper,we take Huanjiang County as the research area,based on the local reality,measured the development level of households’ livelihood capital,compared the difference of livelihood capital between the participating group and the non-participating group before and after the project,and compared the difference of households’ livelihood in different regions,which is to reveal the difference of the implementation effect of the project and the implementation effect of different modes.Applying the Difference in Difference method,this paper estimates the policy effect of project on households’ income,and provides some relevant policy recommendations.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The RDCP promotes the improvement of households’ livelihood capital and has different effects on various types of capital.(2)The RDCP has an optimized effect on the household capital structure of the livelihood,but it is not ideal.The livelihood capital structure of household is unreasonable generally.The coupling coordination degree has changed from extremely low coordination in 2008 to low-level coordination in 2017.The project has not played a significant role in the coupling and coordination between capitals.(3)Comparing the implementation effect of herbivorous animal husbandry model of the Guzhou and economic forest-fruit model of the Kenfu(Referred to as the Guzhou mode and the Kenfu model,the same below),it is found that the Kenfu model has a negative effect on the human capital,which is significantly larger than the Guzhou model.The positive effect of Kenfu model on the natural capital,financial capital and social capital is greater than that of the Guzhou model.The positive effect of the Guzhou model on the material capital is greater than the Kenfu model.(4)The empirical research found that the Guzhou model and the Kenfu model promoted the increase of farmers’ income,which had positive effects on the per capita total income and total household income,and had different effects on the different types of income of the farmers.(5)The implementation of the project has changed the structure of farmers’ income significantly.The proportion of rural migrant income of household who participated in the project in Guzhou decreased from 75.06% to 47.20%,and the proportion of breed and livestock income has increased from 15.15% to 44.17%.breeding and livestock has become one of the main sources of income for farmers;The proportion of rural migrant income of household participating in the project is still more than 60%,and the proportion of fruit and forest income was 30.98%,which did not achieve the expected results.In general,the implementation of the project enhances the income stability of farmers.