Research On Sustainable Livelihoods Of Farmers Around Emigration And Immigration Areas Under The Background Of Ecological Migration Project

At present,China is in the crucial stage of building a well-off society in an all-round way and winning the battle against poverty.Therefore,Great attentions have been paid to the sustainable livelihoods and much work is in progress.Relocation and ecological migration projects are important forms of poverty alleviation by the government,which plays an important role in monitoring and assessing the livelihoods of farmers for achieving sustainable livelihoods.Based on the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework,this study analyzed the impact of ecological migration projects on sustainable livelihoods for farmers and revealed the problems of livelihood capital,livelihood diversity,income structure and the characteristics of sustainable livelihoods,as well as the sustainable livelihoods in different stages of the immigration project.The results show that:(1)The level of livelihood capital in emigration and immigration areas were relatively low and not balanced.The levels of natural capital and social capital were low,while high levels of human capital,material capital and financial capital existed.Additionally,the level of natural capital in emigration areas is extremely low with an insufficient knowledge of social capital of local peasant households.(2)The livelihood capital of households has continuously improved In the past 20 years since ecological emigration project.The level of livelihood capital levels,livelihood activities and the stability of family income in immigration areas were higher than those in emigration areas.Ecological emigration project achieved remarkable results.(3)The agricultural livelihood methods of farmers showed huge difference,and the structure of non-agricultural livelihood activities was single.The agricultural livelihood diversity showed a trend of firstly increasing and then declining.The diversity of planting increased explosively in the early stage of migration and remained unchanged in the later stage.The diversity of the aquaculture industry was being reduced at every stage.The agricultural structure of the farmers in immigration area needed to be completed immediately.As for emigration area,the diversity of agricultural livelihoods and the diversity index of non-agricultural livelihoods increased continuously.Farmers of two regions both take migrant workers as the main direction of no-agriculture directions,and showed a highly dependence on migrant workers.Non-agricultural business activities needed guidance and support from the government.(4)The income structure of peasant households were irrational,and the willingness of farmers in immigration areas had been changed.The income stability of farmers in emigration area was low,with a high dependency and high family economic risk.However,the income stability of farmers in the immigration area was relatively high,and the dependence was higher than emigration area in the initial stage but lower in the later stage of migration.The migration policy of the farmers in the resettlement area is highly dependent.The urgent of family income reduced in the later period of the immigration project,while the focus would shift to the social welfare of their children’s education,health care and pensions for the elderly.(5)Combining these conclusions,the government was recommended to improve the agricultural structure to move into areas,and carry out non-farm livelihood support.Attentions should be focused on the ecological security problems of farmers to move out and improve the ability of livelihood farmers.Additionally,government should improve the right system engineering of land resources and ecological migration.