IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i6p1780-d149534.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Farmers’ Livelihood Strategies on Household Energy Consumption in the Eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China

Author

Listed:
  • Xueyan Zhao

    (College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China)

  • Haili Zhao

    (College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China)

  • Lu Jiang

    (College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
    Key Lab of Pollution Ecology & Environmental Engineering, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China)

  • Chenyu Lu

    (College of Geography and Environment Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China)

  • Bing Xue

    (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e. V. (IASS), 14467 Potsdam, Germany)

Abstract

As an essential factor for sustainable development, energy plays a very important role in sustaining a modern lifestyle, particularly in poor rural areas. Considering that farmers’ livelihood in such areas is enormously dependent on services provided by environmental resources, it makes sense to investigate the relationships and interactions between farming households’ livelihood strategies and their energy consumption. The findings and outcomes would be expected to contribute to the body of knowledge and benefit local policy-making toward sustainable transformation in the long run. Taking Gannan as an example, this study employed a participatory rural appraisal approach, with first-hand data mainly from field surveys, using a stratified random sampling method to illustrate the influence of farmers’ livelihood strategies for household energy consumption in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China. Seven townships in Gannan were covered, three of them in pure pastoral areas, two in farming-pastoral areas, and two in farming areas. From these, 230 households were selected as study samples, with a valid return of 217 questionnaires, among which 78 came from pure pastoral areas, 60 from farming-pastoral areas, and 79 from farming areas. The results show that livelihood has a significant impact on farmers’ household energy consumption patterns, and increasing family income level and education level and improving the availability of commodity energy resources will help farmers reduce the proportion of biomass energy consumption and increase the proportion of commodity energy consumption. Furthermore, measures such as developing nonagricultural industries, improving the energy infrastructure, and enhancing farmers’ energy-saving awareness should be seriously considered to optimize farmers’ living energy consumption patterns in these poverty-stricken and eco-frangible regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Xueyan Zhao & Haili Zhao & Lu Jiang & Chenyu Lu & Bing Xue, 2018. "The Influence of Farmers’ Livelihood Strategies on Household Energy Consumption in the Eastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1780-:d:149534
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1780/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/6/1780/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Qiu & Yang, Haoran & Liu, Tianbiao & Zhang, Lin, 2016. "Household biomass energy choice and its policy implications on improving rural livelihoods in Sichuan, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 291-302.
    2. Bing Wang & Hua-Nan Li & Xiao-Chen Yuan & Zhen-Ming Sun, 2017. "Energy Poverty in China: A Dynamic Analysis Based on a Hybrid Panel Data Decision Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Ellis, Frank, 2000. "Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198296966.
    4. Jiao, Xi & Pouliot, Mariève & Walelign, Solomon Zena, 2017. "Livelihood Strategies and Dynamics in Rural Cambodia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 266-278.
    5. Ping, Xiaoge & Jiang, Zhigang & Li, Chunwang, 2012. "Social and ecological effects of biomass utilization and the willingness to use clean energy in the eastern Qinghai–Tibet plateau," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 828-833.
    6. Wang, Qiang & Qiu, Huan-Ning, 2009. "Situation and outlook of solar energy utilization in Tibet, China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 2181-2186, October.
    7. Frank Ellis, 2000. "The Determinants of Rural Livelihood Diversification in Developing Countries," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 289-302, May.
    8. York, Richard & Rosa, Eugene A. & Dietz, Thomas, 2003. "STIRPAT, IPAT and ImPACT: analytic tools for unpacking the driving forces of environmental impacts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 351-365, October.
    9. Liu, Gang & Lucas, Mario & Shen, Lei, 2008. "Rural household energy consumption and its impacts on eco-environment in Tibet: Taking Taktse county as an example," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(7), pages 1890-1908, September.
    10. Renate Schubert & Julia Blasch & Kristin Hoffmann, 2007. "Environmental Protection, Energy Policy and Poverty Reduction – Synergies of an Integrated Approach," IED Working paper 07-01, IED Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich.
    11. Chambers, R. & Conway, G. R., 1991. "Sustainable rural livelihoods: Practical concepts for the 21st century," IWMI Books, Reports H032821, International Water Management Institute.
    12. Wang, Chengchao & Yang, Yusheng & Zhang, Yaoqi, 2012. "Rural household livelihood change, fuelwood substitution, and hilly ecosystem restoration: Evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2475-2482.
    13. Alam, Manzoor & Sathaye, Jayant & Barnes, Doug, 1998. "Urban household energy use in India: efficiency and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(11), pages 885-891, September.
    14. Walelign, Solomon Zena & Jiao, Xi, 2017. "Dynamics of rural livelihoods and environmental reliance: Empirical evidence from Nepal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 199-209.
    15. Han, Hongyun & Wu, Shu, 2018. "Rural residential energy transition and energy consumption intensity in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 523-534.
    16. Katuwal, Hari & Bohara, Alok K., 2009. "Biogas: A promising renewable technology and its impact on rural households in Nepal," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2668-2674, December.
    17. Fang, Yiping & Wei, Yanqiang, 2013. "Climate change adaptation on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau: The importance of solar energy utilization for rural household," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 508-518.
    18. Leiwen Jiang & Brian C. O'Neill, 2004. "The energy transition in rural China," International Journal of Global Energy Issues, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 21(1/2), pages 2-26.
    19. Gurung, Anup & Oh, Sang Eun, 2013. "Conversion of traditional biomass into modern bioenergy systems: A review in context to improve the energy situation in Nepal," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 206-213.
    20. Dingde Xu & Jifei Zhang & Golam Rasul & Shaoquan Liu & Fangting Xie & Mengtian Cao & Enlai Liu, 2015. "Household Livelihood Strategies and Dependence on Agriculture in the Mountainous Settlements in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-20, April.
    21. Chambers, Robert, 1994. "The origins and practice of participatory rural appraisal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(7), pages 953-969, July.
    22. Ping, Xiaoge & Jiang, Zhigang & Li, Chunwang, 2011. "Status and future perspectives of energy consumption and its ecological impacts in the Qinghai-Tibet region," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 514-523, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chenyu Lu & Peng Meng & Xueyan Zhao & Lu Jiang & Zilong Zhang & Bing Xue, 2019. "Assessing the Economic-Environmental Efficiency of Energy Consumption and Spatial Patterns in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Wei Liu & Liyuan He & Jie Xu & Dingde Xu, 2023. "Linking Natural Resource Dependence to Sustainable Household Wellbeing: A Case Study in Western China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-17, October.
    3. Jacqueline Hettel Tidwell & Abraham Tidwell & Steffan Nelson, 2018. "Surveying the Solar Power Gap: Assessing the Spatial Distribution of Emerging Photovoltaic Solar Adoption in the State of Georgia, U.S.A," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, November.
    4. Wei Liu & Jie Xu & Jie Li, 2018. "The Influence of Poverty Alleviation Resettlement on Rural Household Livelihood Vulnerability in the Western Mountainous Areas, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-15, August.
    5. Wei Liu & Jie Li & Linjing Ren & Jie Xu & Cong Li & Shuzhuo Li, 2020. "Exploring Livelihood Resilience and Its Impact on Livelihood Strategy in Rural China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 977-998, August.
    6. Zi, Cao & Qian, Meng & Baozhong, Gao, 2021. "The consumption patterns and determining factors of rural household energy: A case study of Henan Province in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    7. Zexian Gu & Xiaoqing Zhao & Pei Huang & Junwei Pu & Xinyu Shi & Yungang Li, 2023. "Identification of Multi-Dimensional Relative Poverty and Governance Path at the Village Scale in an Alpine-Gorge Region: A Case Study in Nujiang, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-19, January.
    8. Jacqueline Hettel Tidwell & Abraham Tidwell & Steffan Nelson & Marcus Hill, 2018. "SolarView: Georgia Solar Adoption in Context," Data, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-12, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lun Yang & Moucheng Liu & Qingwen Min, 2019. "Natural Disasters, Public Policies, Family Characteristics, or Livelihood Assets? The Driving Factors of Farmers’ Livelihood Strategy Choices in a Nature Reserve," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Wang, Menghan & Liu, Zhong & Xu, Aiyan & Yang, Dan, 2022. "Fuel choice for rural Tibetan households: Impacts of access to credit," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    3. Ding, Wenguang & Xu, Luan & Ye, Weifeng, 2014. "A comparative study of bioenergy consumption and CO2 emissions in Tibetan region of China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 344-350.
    4. Walelign,Solomon Zena & Wang Sonne,Soazic Elise & Seshan,Ganesh Kumar, 2022. "Livelihood Impacts of Refugees on Host Communities : Evidence from Ethiopia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10044, The World Bank.
    5. Pang, Mingyue & Zhang, Lixiao & Bahaj, AbuBakr S. & Xu, Kaipeng & Hao, Yan & Wang, Changbo, 2018. "Small hydropower development in Tibet: Insight from a survey in Nagqu Prefecture," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3032-3040.
    6. Wiebe, Pia Christine & Zhunusova, Eliza & Lippe, Melvin & Ferrer Velasco, Rubén & Günter, Sven, 2022. "What is the contribution of forest-related income to rural livelihood strategies in the Philippines' remaining forested landscapes?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Rui Sun & Jianing Mi & Shu Cao & Tianyi Zhang, 2021. "Trends and Determinants of Income-Oriented Livelihood Transitions in Rural China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 601-624, June.
    8. Ali Akbar Barati & Milad Zhoolideh & Mostafa Moradi & Eydieh Sohrabi Mollayousef & Christine Fürst, 2022. "Multidimensional poverty and livelihood strategies in rural Iran," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12963-12993, November.
    9. Jiao, Xi & Walelign, Solomon Zena & Nielsen, Martin Reinhardt & Smith-Hall, Carsten, 2019. "Protected areas, household environmental incomes and well-being in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Martins, Angelina R.O. & Shackleton, Charlie M., 2022. "The contribution of wild palms to the livelihoods and diversification of rural households in southern Mozambique," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    11. Soltani, Arezoo & Angelsen, Arild & Eid, Tron & Naieni, Mohammad Saeid Noori & Shamekhi, Taghi, 2012. "Poverty, sustainability, and household livelihood strategies in Zagros, Iran," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 60-70.
    12. Wang, Chengchao & Yang, Yusheng & Zhang, Yaoqi, 2012. "Rural household livelihood change, fuelwood substitution, and hilly ecosystem restoration: Evidence from China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 2475-2482.
    13. H.M. Tuihedur Rahman & Gordon M. Hickey, 2020. "An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-26, July.
    14. Diane Kapgen & Laurence Roudart, 2023. "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Assess Smallholder Farmers' Adoption of New Technologies in Development Interventions," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 35(4), pages 974-995, August.
    15. Malla, Sunil & Timilsina, Govinda R, 2014. "Household cooking fuel choice and adoption of improved cookstoves in developing countries : a review," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6903, The World Bank.
    16. Lecegui, Antonio & Olaizola, Ana María & López-i-Gelats, Feliu & Varela, Elsa, 2022. "Implementing the livelihood resilience framework: An indicator-based model for assessing mountain pastoral farming systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    17. Francesca Marchetta, 2011. "On the Move Livelihood Strategies in Northern Ghana," CERDI Working papers halshs-00591137, HAL.
    18. Tanya Jakimow, 2013. "Unlocking the Black Box of Institutions in Livelihoods Analysis: Case Study from Andhra Pradesh, India," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 493-516, December.
    19. Fan, Shengyue & He, Miao & Zhang, Tianyu & Huo, Yajing & Fan, Di, 2022. "Credibility measurement as a tool for conserving nature: Chinese herders’ livelihood capitals and payment for grassland ecosystem services," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    20. Thai Thi Minh & Charity Osei‐Amponsah, 2021. "Towards poor‐centred value chain for sustainable development: A conceptual framework," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 1223-1236, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:1780-:d:149534. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.