Effects Of Seasonal Drinking Water Deficiency On Food Consumption Structure Of Farmers In Poor Mountainous Areas In Southwest China

Climate change has attracted widespread attention around the world and becomes a global major challenge all of us we confront together. With the frequent occurrences of extreme climate and ever-increasing drought disaster events and areas in the world, significantly reduced illumination and famine and misdistribution of water enhance the instability and fragility of agricultural production. Drought will not only adversely affect the environmental health, ecological balance, economic and social development, simultaneously but also threaten the food security of human beings, especially for farmers in poverty-stricken areas. Since reform and opening-up, "trickle-down effects" benefiting from rapid developments of our macro-economy basically have settled the problems of rural residents’ adequate food and clothing. Today china’s rural poverty has gradually been a shift from "sheet and concentrated poverty" to "scattered-point poverty" caused by a series of constraints with distinct regional characteristics, which is concentrated in southwestern, northwestern and central poor mountainous areas of China. Southwestern poor mountainous areas in China are disadvantaged areas for agricultural production and have not completely gotten rid of the mercy of the forces of nature. The specific geographical and climatic conditions bring about seasonal drinking water famine for people and livestock in southwestern poor mountainous areas and seriously influence the standards of production and living of local farmers. Households are producers and consumers of food, the consumption on various foods will be affected by seasonal drinking water shortage to varying degrees, general economic growth policy has been difficult to benefiting them and shaking off poverty for them, so we need to study the impacts of seasonal drinking water shortage on food consumption structure of local farmers. Study the affects of seasonal drinking water shortage on food consumption structure, take effective measures to improve the rationality of households’ food consumption structure in southwestern poor mountainous areas, and ameliorate farmers’ health status.Therefore, the overall objective of this study is:on the basis of current situation of food consumption structure of households in southwestern poor mountainous areas, analyzing the impacts of seasonal drinking water shortage on food consumption structure of households in southwestern poor mountainous areas, so as to provide detailed empirical basis of science in the formulation of the poverty alleviation policy for the government. The full study content mainly includes the following two aspects:Content 1:Divide necessary food and non-necessary food after estimating elastics of the six categories of food empirically through the AIDS model, so as to know about the necessary degree of different food for households in southwestern poor mountainous areas. As far as households of southwestern poor mountainous areas concerned, grain food, edible oil and salt, beans and their products are necessaries, while vegetables and fruits, tea and liquor and tobacco and beverages, meat and eggs and milk and seafood are non-necessaries, namely luxuries.Content 2:Combine with the division judgment of necessaries and non-necessaries, via the DID model build multivariate linear simultaneous equations to analyze the impacts of seasonal drinking water shortage on the consumption proportion of various food of households in southwestern poor mountainous areas. The empirical results demonstrate that improvements of seasonal drinking water shortage raise the consumption proportion of gain food, edible oil and salt, vegetables and fruits, meat and eggs and milk and seafood, meanwhile, reduce the consumption proportion of beans and their products, tea and liquor and tobacco and beverages. Other personal and family characteristics variables to some extent exert influences on food consumption structure.Based on overall consideration of the two aspects, seasonal drinking water shortage has an effect on food consumption structure of households in southwestern poor mountainous areas. Improvements of seasonal drinking water shortage raise the consumption proportion of gain food, edible oil and salt, vegetables and fruits, meat and eggs and milk and seafood. Therefore, strengthening the improvements of drinking water infrastructure in southwestern poor mountainous areas contribute to ameliorate food consumption structure of poverty colony and accelerate health human capital. In the meantime, we should pay more attention to facilitate local farms to go out as migrant workers and increase non-agricultural income of farmers in poverty-stricken areas. Actively guide farmers to form correct consumption outlook and intensify advocacy and popularization of farmers’reasonable dietary structure. The southwest poverty alleviation policies should precede public infrastructure and improve farmers’production and living environment, ameliorate the food consumption structure.