HOUSEHOLDS' RISK MANAGEMENT STRAGIES AND VULNERABILITY TO POVERTY IN RURAL CHINA

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceThis article concerns the effectiveness of risk management strategies adopted by Chinese rural households, in western China where the economic and social context has changed greatly since the late 1990s. Drawing on an existing framework of risk management and vulnerability to poverty, we propose a new model based on qualitative data analysis and test it using quantitative data. We find that risk management strategies include selfinsurance instruments, which involve households' assets and income diversification, and a risk-sharing strategy. Income diversification, precautionary financial saving, and informal social supports are major risk management strategies, which can be effective in reducing vulnerability. Compared with results of previous studies, we find risk management strategies have been revised; the revisions are caused by the rapid social and economic changes that have taken place since the late 1990s

The perception of desertification, its social impact and the adaptive strategies of ecological migrants in the desertification area, China

Based on social influence theory, the Risk-Coping-Social Appraisal model, and data on land desertification, its social influence, and the adaptive measures of 506 households surveyed in Ordos and Bayan Nur, Inner Mongolia, China, we used the Heckman two-stage model and a multinomial logistic model and found the following. First, the perception of land desertification was a prerequisite for eco-migrants to employ adaptive strategies but did not necessarily indicate the adoption of adaptive countermeasures. Second, the social influences eco-migrants experienced at their resettlement site had a significant effect on their ability to employ countermeasures to land desertification. Third, asset variables that reflected migrant's coping ability positively affected perceptions of land desertification and subsequent adaptive countermeasures. To mitigate the negative effects of climate change and land desertification, the local government should encourage migrants to accumulate assets and help migrants to integrate into their new community. This can be achieved by propagandizing information on climate change through a range of channels, diversifying publicity content, and guiding migrants to learn about new technologies and methods for reducing land desertification to minimize related economic losses

Effects of social capital and technology cognition on farmers' adoption of soil and water conservation tillage technology in the Loess Plateau of China

From the aspect of regional differences, this paper investigated the impact of social capital and technology cognition on the adoption of soil and water conservation tillage technology in the Loess Plateau in China. We find social networks and social trust had significant impact on the adoption of contour tillage technology by farmers in Shanxi and Shaanxi. Social participation had a significant impact in Shaanxi, whereas social prestige had a significant impact in Gansu, and social norms had a significant impact on the adoption of contour tillage technology in the three provinces. Technology cognition played an intermediary role in the effects of social networks, social trust, and social norms on technology adoption in Shaanxi and Shanxi, and on the impact of social norms on technology adoption in Gansu. Considering social networks, the frequency of communication between farmers and villagers had the greatest impact on technology adoption in Shanxi and Shaanxi, while farmers' trust in villagers had the greatest impact on technology adoption in these two provinces. The participation in collective activities in the village had the greatest impact on technology adoption in Shaanxi. Furthermore as for social prestige there was little difference in the degree of impact of observation variables on technology adoption by farmers in Gansu. Finally, regarding social norms, the attitudes and behaviors adopted by relative's friends, and villagers in the village had the greatest impact