Income Diversification: A Strategy for Rural Region Risk Management
1
School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
2
China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
3
Chongqing Water Resources and Electric Engineering College, Chongqing 402160, China
4
School of architecture, Linyi University, Linyi 276000, China
5
College of Marxism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Marc A. Rosen
Sustainability 2016, 8(10), 1064; https://doi.org/10.3390/su8101064
Received: 23 July 2016 / Revised: 1 October 2016 / Accepted: 8 October 2016 / Published: 24 October 2016
Recent literature shows that income diversification is an important strategy for rural households to manage drought risk in arid and semiarid regions. This article examines whether income diversification can help rural households to overcome the adverse impact of drought in Northern China. Based on field interview data from 291 rural households in 13 townships of Northern China, we found that rural households tend to have a more diversified portfolio of income; the spatial location of rural households determines the type and number of income sources, the degree of income diversification, and the income combinations, especially under the context of frequent drought strikes. These results indicate that income diversification could help rural households to reduce the adverse impact of drought, enhance their resistance and resilience to drought, and make their livelihood system more stable. Income diversification not only is a useful strategy in terms of managing disaster risk and improving social welfare, but also may offer a new perspective for the research of vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive ability of rural social-ecosystem.
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Keywords:
income diversification; livelihood; drought; rural household; China
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MDPI and ACS Style
Wan, J.; Li, R.; Wang, W.; Liu, Z.; Chen, B. Income Diversification: A Strategy for Rural Region Risk Management. Sustainability 2016, 8, 1064.
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