Household livelihood choices under the different eco-environment in the karst area: A case study of Anshun City, southwest of China

Farmer household livelihood choice has been critical in ecosystem and natural resource sustainability in developing countries. This paper investigates the choices of farmer household livelihood in a Karst environment in China by using a multinomial logistic regression model to analyze 676 farmer household questionnaire responses from 6 counties in Anshun City, Guizhou Province. The results show that factors such as land quality, regional accessibility, government policies, and farmer households' characteristics have significant effect on farmer household livelihood choices. Even though farmers are unwilling to live in areas of rocky desertification and soil erosion, the proportion of those who live in those areas is high, because alternatives are limited by environment conditions and farmer households' situations. Good regional traffic accessibility facilitates farmer households' part-time non-agricultural employment. Meanwhile, the Rocky Desertification Control Project increases migrant laborers. The study suggests that government policies diversify the choices of farmer household livelihoods in different eco-environment regions.