Impact of Environmental and Health Risks on Rural Households’ Sustainable Livelihoods: Evidence from China

Abstract

China has entered a “post-poverty alleviation” era, where the achievement of sustainable livelihoods by farmers has become a focus. This study used the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) database, which was constructed based on an analysis of the DFID sustainable livelihood framework, and built a sustainable livelihood index system for farmers using the entropy weight method to measure the weights of sustainable livelihood indexes and calculate a sustainable livelihood index. This study used the Tobit model to discuss the impacts of different types of risk on the achievement of a sustainable livelihood by farmers. The results showed that environmental risk, chronic disease risk, and major disease risk all had significant negative impacts on the ability of farmers to achieve a sustainable livelihood. The impacts of major disease and chronic disease risks on the achievement of a sustainable livelihood by farmers living in plain areas were stronger than those associated with environmental risk. In China, the environmental risks were complex and diverse and were the most important factors that affect the achievement of a sustainable livelihood by rural households in mountainous areas. Chronic disease risk was also an important adverse factor that affected the achievement of a sustainable livelihood by rural households in mountainous areas.

Can Land Transfer Alleviate the Poverty of the Elderly? Evidence from Rural China

“…“Agriculture for the elderly” is an integral part of China’s small-scale peasant economy, and it is also the epitome of China’s agriculture and rural society [ 20 ]. The absence of the young and middle-aged within the leading agricultural business makes the rural elderly have to care for the contracted land [ 21 , 22 ]. This model has two sides.…”

The Influence of Disease Status on Loneliness of the Elderly: Evidence from Rural China

“…When the elderly is suffering from a serious illness requiring hospitalization or them to be bedridden at home, the dual pressure of economic burden and care burden may make children regard their parents as a “burden”, reducing visiting behavior and deepening the loneliness of the elderly. Currently, in China, the loneliness of the elderly and its “serious disease effect” may not only appear in rural areas, but may also emerge due to the increase in empty nesters in cities, with their loneliness and other mental health problems becoming more and more obvious [ 38 ]. Of course, the characteristics and influencing factors of urban related problems also need to be further studied by scholars.…”

“…Secondly, according to the theory of population migration, the flow of the rural young and middle-aged labor force to cities is based on the rational consideration of maximizing personal interests [ 37 ]. The flow of the rural young and middle-aged labor force to the city emphasizes the role of social labor and weakens the family role in the original family, reducing the time and energy to care for and communicate with parents, which means that the elderly’s emotional and behavioral dependence on their children is hindered by time and space under the opposition between mobility and left behind [ 38 , 39 ]. When the emotional sustenance and care dependence of the rural elderly on their children are limited, they may feel a sense of loss and loneliness.…”

Climate Change and Farmers’ Household Financial Vulnerability: Evidence From China

“…One study finds no significant effect of disease shocks on household nonmedical consumption expenditures (Townsend, 1994). The differences in the above findings may be due to the heterogeneous effects of health shocks on the financial risk of households with different incomes or different mechanisms of influencing household risk, both direct (Rosen and Wu, 2004;Wang et al, 2021) and indirect (Berkowitz and Qiu, 2006). In addition, in rural areas, the return to poverty due to illness is still one of the main factors negatively affecting the financial vulnerability of rural households.…”