Enhancing Livelihood Resilience Through Specialty Agriculture: A Study of Daylily Farmers in Northern China’s Agro-Pastoral Ecotone

As global climate change intensifies and economic transformation progresses, the agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China faces dual challenges of stopping ecological degradation and enhancing farmers’ livelihoods. Yunzhou District in Shanxi Province represents a typical ecologically fragile area, where the daylily industry contributes significantly to improving livelihood resilience. This study categorized farmers into three types based on their dependence on daylily income: major-job farmers (50–90% income from daylily), sole agriculture farmers (≥90%), and side-job farmers (<50%). Using questionnaire survey data and the optimal parameter-based geographical detector method, we evaluated and compared the livelihood resilience levels of these farmer types and identified their key explanatory factors. The results showed that (1) major-job farmers exhibited the highest livelihood resilience index (0.165), followed by sole agriculture farmers (0.152), whereas side-job farmers exhibited the lowest (0.138); (2) significant differences in livelihood resilience existed across farmer types ( p < 0.05); and (3) health status was a common key factor across all types, while factors such as traffic accessibility, policy awareness, social security, and information acquisition capability exhibited differential effects among groups. These findings provide empirical evidence to guide targeted livelihood interventions and sustainable transitions in the agro-pastoral ecotone.