The Effect Of Trade-offs/synergies Among Livelihood Capitals On The Livelihood Resilience Of Farming Households In Poor Mountainous Area

Climate change,economic volatility,and food crises pose great threats to the livelihoods of poor mountain farming households worldwide.As the key to improving livelihood resilience,there are complex interrelationships among livelihood capitals.Studying the impact of the relationship among livelihood capitals on farmers’ livelihood resilience can help them in coping with external shocks and promote sustainable development in poor mountainous areas.Based on 1145 household survey data from Longnan Mountains,we studied the impacts of livelihood capital trade-offs and synergies on the livelihood resilience of farmers through the correlational network approach.And the framework of "absorptive capacity-adaptive capacity-transformative capacity" was used to assess the level of farmers’ livelihood resilience in the Longnan mountainous area.On the basis of this,the moving-window and the generalized additive model are used to analyze the impact of the trade-off/synergy relationship between livelihood capitals on farmers’ livelihood resilience.The results show that:(1)The livelihood capital endowment of farmers in Longnan mountainous area is generally low,and the average livelihood capital index is 1.716.Farmers’ livelihood capital is social capital,human capital,natural capital,physical capital and social capital from high to low.From the perspective of different land-form areas,farmers’ livelihood capital from high to low is Chuanba valley area,semimountain area,high mountain area.In terms of different livelihood strategies,farmers’ livelihood capital from high to low is balanced type,working-oriented type,businessoriented type,traditional farming type and subsidy-dependent type.(2)The interrelationship between livelihood capital is dominated by synergy,and the proportion of synergy among indicators(34.55%)is significantly higher than the proportion of trade-offs(16.36%).Natural capital is synergistic with physical and financial capital but a trade-off with human and social capital.Human capital is synergistic with physical and financial capital.Human capital is also trade-off with physical and financial capital.Physical capital is synergistic with social and financial capital.(3)The interrelationship between farmers’ livelihood capital in Longnan mountainous area is weak,and the network densities of livelihood capital synergy network and trade-off network are 0.364 and 0.222 respectively.From the perspective of different land-form regions,the density of the farmers’ livelihood capital network in the high mountain area,semimountain area,and Chuanba valley area has increased in a gradient way,regardless of the synergy network or trade-off network.The synergy network mainly forms two subnetworks centered on fixed assets-scale of support network-nonagricultural income,and livestock assets-agricultural income-cultivated land area.The trade-off network mainly forms three subnetworks: the proportion of labor force-educational attainment,livestock assets-nonfarm income-farm income,and scale of support network-cultivated land area-fixed assets-woodland area.(4)The livelihood resilience of farmers in the mountainous area of Longnan is low on the whole,and the livelihood resilience index is 0.277.Among them,adaptive ability(0.159)> transformative ability(0.098)>absorptive ability(0.021).Farmers’ livelihood resilience in Longnan mountainous areas increases sequentially from the high mountain area and semimountain areas to the Chuanba valley areas.Farmers with business-oriented and working-oriented livelihood strategies had higher livelihood resilience,while those with subsidy-dependent and agriculture-oriented livelihood strategies had lower livelihood resilience.(5)The synergy among livelihood capital helps to improve the level of livelihood resilience of farmers.The stronger the connectivity of farmers’ livelihood capitals in synergy networks,the higher the farmers’ livelihood resilience is.However,the livelihood resilience of farmers has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the connectivity of livelihood capitals in trade-off networks.At the same time,market price fluctuations,transportation convenience,natural disasters,and altitude have a moderating effect on the trade-off/synergy relationship of livelihood capital of farmers.