A Research On Interest-Driven Choice Of Livelihood Patterns Of Migrated Farmers In The Loess Hilly Region

The party and government have been committed to the problem of poverty alleviation in rural areas. China’s poverty-stricken population is mainly located in the central and western regions. In fact, these poverty-stricken areas are always accompanied by ecological fragility. Therefore, there has been an unprecedentedly sharp contradiction between human beings and nature in the Loess Plateau region. The inhabitants cannot rely on the fragile ecological environment and the "lofty gully" loess landscape to make a living. Thus, the people of the loess hilly region have been troubled by the ecological deterioration and poverty for a long time. In order to resolve the poverty problems completely in the hilly areas and the ecological problems the government carries out the relocation project of immigration zone by zone in the loess hilly area. The livelihood type of the farmers has changed with the implementation of the relocation project, and the income type and life style of farmers have changed finally. The poverty problem has been relieved to a great extent, but the differentiation of livelihood patterns has caused a series of social and economic problems, such as the matter of these farmers’ future livelihood, the threat of unsustainable development of agriculture in loess hilly region and the block of ecological environmental protection. this paper focuses on promoting the income level of farmers in the loess hilly region from the perspective of system and policy, selecting the livelihood mode effectively and balancing the interests of all kinds of livelihood mode so as to solve the problem of migration’s poverty, and to enhance sustainable and healthy development of agriculture and ecological environmental protection.The paper researches on the livelihood mode choice of migrated farmers in the Loess Hilly Region from theoretical and empirical aspects. The existing researches are mainly about sustainable livelihood, livelihood security, the impact of certain policies and economic factors on farmers’ livelihoods, such as returning farmland to forests, ecological compensation, labor migration, human capital and so on. We do the research from the point view of interest-driven choice of Livelihood Patterns of the farmers in the loess hilly-gully region because the farmers’ livelihood resources are relatively scarce and they are very poor. Therefore, The farmers will naturally choose their own livelihoods based on interest maximization to improve their living conditions and realize their own survival and development goals. In fact, the choice of farmers’ livelihood model is not only a market-oriented choice, but also a public policy. In the paper we begin our research by constructing public support systems concerning farmers livelihood assets and income structure, so as to help the farmers to choose the perfect mode based on interest. The first part is conceptual model and research hypothesis. We study relevant literatures about livelihoods, income levels and livelihood resources of rural households and construct the modes of "livelihood model-income level", "livelihood resources-livelihood model" and "subsistence model" based on relevant theories. And we analyze the corresponding relationship between the research variables of the conceptual model, namely the relationship between livelihood mode and income level:"result-model", livelihood resource variable and livelihood model:"Condition-mode", and the relationship between the variable of livelihood resources and the income level under the same livelihood mode: "condition-result". And we further construct the evaluation index system of the farmers’livelihood mode selection. The second is about empirical study. We do the study through the scientific and normative questionnaire and the rigorous data analysis based on the "one-to-one" survey of migrant households. We choose the stochastic forest method to solve the multi-collinearity problem and to identify the classification of the livelihood pattern, validate the relationship of the variables and analyze the main influencing factors of the livelihood mode choice, the income level and related social and economic problems. Finally, it is about practical significance. In this part we analyze the impact of the current policy system on the choice of migrant farmers’livelihood patterns and put forward corresponding policies so as to better implement the migration policy of loess hilly areas, and to carry out the livelihood mode selection effectively to raise the income level.This paper draws a few conclusions based on the research: ①There are significant differences in income levels among households with different livelihood modes, especially the agricultural livelihood model, which is far lower than those of subsistence modes, such as the migrant livelihood model and the urbanized livelihood model. The decline of human capital in agricultural livelihood mode may further weaken the agricultural livelihood pattern and aggravate the shrinkage of agriculture in loess hilly region. ②Based on comparative interest, there is a economic necessity to abandon the agricultural livelihoods mode and to choose another mode for the migrating famers.③The number of migrant workers and family members, the age of head of household, the average age of labor, the number of labors and local workers, the cultivated land, the number of own cultivated land and the crop of steep slopes all have strong correlation with livelihood mode choices. Among the main factors that influence the choice of livelihood modes, the influence of policy including education years of labor force, the number of migrant workers and local workers, the cultivated land, steep slope crops.④Relevant policy support system can improve livelihood pattern’s influence factors and the income structure of relevant farmers to promote the effective choice of farmers’ livelihood modes and to solve the social and economic problems caused by the differentiation of livelihood modes. Concrete policy suggestions include:social security mechanism to maintain the local agricultural livelihood mode,to develop agriculture and to promote the integration of outside workers and urban labor forces, suggestions on promoting industrial structure optimization in loess hilly region, constructing coordination mechanism between government functions and farmers’ interests in returning farmland to forest, suggestions on raising labor force human capital in loess hilly region, policy suggestions on effective transfer of rural surplus labor in loess hilly region and policy suggestions on accelerating urbanization in loess hilly region.