The government’s impact on the transformation of rural livelihoods in agropastoral regions: Aquantitative analysis of farmers’ perceptions of public services in Inner Mongolia, China

The transition to sustainable livelihoods is essential to enhancing rural households’ incomes and ecological conservation and to promote rural development. Previous studies have primarily focused on internal determinants of livelihood transformation, such as household livelihood capital. However, few studies have quantitatively analyzed the role of governmental interventions in livelihood transformation. Using an improved Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, we examined farmers’ perceptions of public services as an indicator of governmental influence in Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner in Inner Mongolia, a typical agropastoral transition zone. We examined the role of governmental interventions on farmers’ livelihood transformation decisions, applying entropy weighting and regression analysis to survey data gathered from 491 agropastoral households. We found that farmers’ positive perceptions of public services significantly influenced their willingness to transform their livelihoods, with every unit increase in positive perceptions associated with a 2.26-unit increase in transformation willingness. Perceptions of public services differed significantly among different types of farming households, with farming-only and mixed-farming households reporting more positive perceptions than herding-only and non-farming households. Furthermore, willingness to transform livelihoods varied significantly by household type, with mixed-farming households and herding-only households exhibiting greater willingness (average scores of 3.94 and 3.75, respectively) than farming-only and non-farming households (2.41 and 2.61, respectively). Lastly, interactions among public services and livelihood capitals significantly enhanced farmers’ willingness to transform their livelihoods. We recommend differentiated public service policies tailored to household characteristics and wide dissemination of improved agropastoral technologies and animal disease control services to promote a shift to sustainable livelihoods among rural households.