Quantifying Farmers’ Initiatives and Capacity to Cope with Drought: A Case Study of Xinghe County in Semi-Arid China

Abstract

Farmers living in a state of poverty in semi-arid areas are the main victims of drought. They suffer most from drought, which makes it particularly important to assess their capacity to cope with it. The present study developed a new approach for such assessment. Famers’ resources and initiatives to deal with drought were evaluated, and appropriate coping strategies are proposed by analyzing the differences between the coping capacities of two categories of farmers; tenants (with large holdings) and smallholders. Tenants’ capacity to cope with drought was 1.7 times that of smallholders. Also, tenants showed greater initiative during droughts, whereas smallholders made greater efforts in preparing for droughts. Farmers’ resources were positively correlated to the degree of their initiative (correlation coefficient = 0.49). Farmers showed greater initiative when they had larger holdings and were less dependent on agricultural income. The state should give more financial support to subsidy-dependent farmers and encourage smallholders—whose major income comes from crops—to augment their income through livestock husbandry. Such a policy would prove more conducive to increasing the capacity of not only local farmers but also of the entire region to cope with droughts and to promote sustainable development of local agriculture.

Thermal Time Requirements for Maize Growth in Northeast China and Their Effects on Yield and Water Supply under Climate Change Conditions

“…Generally, irrigation is the most efficient adaptation measure to mitigate drought effects [7,46] In NEC, irrigation includes dibbling irrigation used to cope with drought in spring and irrigation adopted in both summer and autumn. Dibbling irrigation (seeding with irrigation to the seeds) is a traditional practice in NEC which is widely used in spring before maize sowing [38].Maize yield was highly correlated with the soil moisture content during planting date [47] and dibbling irrigation is an effective measure to adjust sowing soil moisture content.…”