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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2014, Vol. 13 Issue (4): 687-697    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(13)60697-8
Special Focus:Climate Change and Agriculture Advanced Online Publication | Current Issue | Archive | Adv Search |
Household and Community Assets and Farmers’ Adaptation to Extreme Weather Event: the Case of Drought in China
WANG Yang-jie;  HUANG Ji-kun ; WANG Jin-xia
1.Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
Beijing 100101, P.R.China
2.University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P.R.China
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摘要  Under climate change, rising frequency and serious extreme weather events have challenged agricultural production. Designing appropriate adaptation measures to the extreme weather events require rigorous and empirical analysis. The overall goals of this study are to understand physical adaptation measures taken by farmers and the impacts of household and community assets on farmers’ adaptation when they face drought. The analyses are based on a unique data set collected from a household survey in three provinces in China. The survey results show that though not common on annual basis, some farmers did use physical adaptation measures to fight drought. Regression analysis reveals that both household and community assets significantly affect farmers’ adaptation behaviors. Improving households’ social capital and wealth, communities’ network and access to government’s anti-drought service can facilitate farmers’ adaptation to drought. Results indicate that community’s irrigation infrastructure and physical adaptation taken by farmers can substitute each other. Further analysis shows that the households taking adaptation measures have higher crop yields than those without taking these measures. The paper concludes with several policy implications.

Abstract  Under climate change, rising frequency and serious extreme weather events have challenged agricultural production. Designing appropriate adaptation measures to the extreme weather events require rigorous and empirical analysis. The overall goals of this study are to understand physical adaptation measures taken by farmers and the impacts of household and community assets on farmers’ adaptation when they face drought. The analyses are based on a unique data set collected from a household survey in three provinces in China. The survey results show that though not common on annual basis, some farmers did use physical adaptation measures to fight drought. Regression analysis reveals that both household and community assets significantly affect farmers’ adaptation behaviors. Improving households’ social capital and wealth, communities’ network and access to government’s anti-drought service can facilitate farmers’ adaptation to drought. Results indicate that community’s irrigation infrastructure and physical adaptation taken by farmers can substitute each other. Further analysis shows that the households taking adaptation measures have higher crop yields than those without taking these measures. The paper concludes with several policy implications.
Keywords:  drought       physical adaptation measure       household       community       asset       agriculture  
Received: 12 October 2013   Accepted:
Fund: 

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2012CB955700), the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (70925001, 71161140351), the International Development Research Center (107093-001), and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ADP/2010/070).

Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence HUANG Ji-kun, Tel: +86-10-64889440; Fax: +86-10-64856533; E-mail: jkhuang.ccap@igsnrr.ac.cn     E-mail:  jkhuang.ccap@igsnrr.ac.cn

Cite this article: 

WANG Yang-jie; HUANG Ji-kun ; WANG Jin-xia. 2014. Household and Community Assets and Farmers’ Adaptation to Extreme Weather Event: the Case of Drought in China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 13(4): 687-697.

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