A comparative study on the characteristics of consumption and production of rural households in the West Liaohe River Basin
Rural household is a micro-foundation of the rural economy, whose production and consumption activities would have an important effect on the ecosystems and natural resources. Based on survey data in West Liaohe River Basin as a case site of ecologically-vulnerable areas in the Northern China, we conducted a systematic survey of rural households, and analyzed the different livelihood characteristics of ranch and rural households in the West Liaohe River Basin. In addition, we calculated the production and consumption footprint of different households, and identiifed some inlfuencing factors of production and consumption footprint. Results showed that, 1) different types of households have different family sizes, labor allocations, age structures, education levels, income structures and land use characteristics;2) there have signiifcant differences among production and consumption characteristics of different households. From production perspective, the per capita production of cereals and vegetables dominated, the fully pastoral households led in per capita meat and dairy production, and the farming-pastoral households ranked top for per capita potato production. From consumption perspective, the largest per capita cereal consumption was the fully farming households, the most per capita vegetable consumption was the farming-pastoral households, and the most per capita meat and dairy products was the fully pastoral households; 3) per capita production footprint was 4.301 7 hm2 and per capita consumption footprint was 0.613 5 hm2, much lower. The production and consumption footprints of fully pastoral households were much higher than the fully farming households and the farming-pastoral households; and 4) the rural household production and consumption footprints were significantly correlated with the population characteristics, economic characteristics, and natural resources features. There were differences between the rural household production and consumption footprints. This research also illustrates that grassland ecological footprint plays a decisive role in the ecological footprint of rural households in the West Liaohe River Basin.
rural householdproductionconsumptionecological footprintWest Liaohe River Basin
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
维普
