Agricultural production under rural tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: From the perspective of smallholder farmers

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105329

Land Use Policy

Volume 103, April 2021, 105329

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105329 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Based on the decision-making tree analysis concerning farmers’ livelihoods, we describe the general process of smallholder farmer’ livelihood transformation in the region since 2005–2019.
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We divide the behavior analysis of smallholder farmers’ production into four aspects: production scale, agricultural input, agricultural output and production efficiency. Of them, production scale reflected the ‘yield’ of agricultural production of these farmers, agricultural input and output reflected the ‘structure’ of their agricultural production, production efficiency reflected the ‘outcomes’ of agricultural production based on the consideration of its ‘yield’ and ‘structure’.
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Based on smallholder farmers’ agricultural production behavior data and changes in the quantitative structure of smallholder farmers’ types, we use model analysis to calculate and determine the evolution of regional agricultural production under the development of rural tourism in 2005–2019, including changes in food and energy supply.

Abstract

Rural tourism has been the leading alternative livelihood of farmers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in recent years. However, the trade-off between agricultural production and rural tourism has been gradually serious. Therefore, we selected the Zhagana Village, an example of rural tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, to discuss the agricultural production under rural tourism from smallholder farmers' perspective, and analyze its existence severity of the trade-off. Based on the comparative analysis of smallholder farmers' agricultural production behavior (including the production scale, agricultural input, agricultural output, and production efficiency), we reviewed the agricultural production in the whole study region in 2005–2019. The results show a certain degree of trade-off between agricultural production and rural tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. At the level of smallholder farmers, under the background of rural tourism development, agricultural production efficiency (mainly the production efficiency of grassland) has significantly increased due to the further expansion of the scale of livestock husbandry by smallholder farmers. At the regional level, with the development of rural tourism, the regional production structure has gradually changed from the integrated management of farming, forestry, and animal husbandry into the mode of taking animal husbandry as a dominant industry, farming and forestry as supplementary industries, but the regional agricultural productivity has not been stagnated or weakened.

Introduction

In the past 70 years, the population on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has increased by nearly four times, with the overall permanent population reaching 12.40 million, 52.02% of which is mainly engaged in agricultural production (Qi et al., 2020). Human livelihoods, especially smallholder farmers, have gradually become an essential factor affecting regional sustainable development (Kemp et al., 2013, Chen et al., 2015). However, smallholder farmers' livelihoods evolve dynamically with alterations in the external environment, resulting in their high subjection to dynamic changes. Such dynamic changes in smallholder farmers' livelihoods become even more apparent in ecologically fragile alpine regions that witness significant changes in their natural and social environments (Du et al., 2004, Harris, 2010, Yu et al., 2017, Georg et al., 2020). Since 1980, traditional agricultural production experiences an adverse impact in response to the annually increased temperature of 0.04 °C and precipitation of 0.67 mm on average (Duan and Xiao, 2015, Kelly et al., 2018, Liu et al., 2018, Yang et al., 2019a). By contrast, the tertiary industry boasts a rapid development and the implementation of policies regarding urbanization and targeted poverty alleviation (Yang et al., 2018, Zhang et al., 2019, Rongna and Sun, 2020). Consequently, rural tourism has gradually developed into the main alternative livelihood for smallholder farmers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in addition to agricultural production (Duan et al., 2019).

However, in the wake of shifting from the agricultural production-based livelihoods to the alternative livelihoods represented by rural tourism, trade-off between agricultural production and rural tourism gradually becomes the concern of smallholder farmers, thus attracting more attention to the development of the former in the context of the latter (Fleischer and Tchetchik, 2005, Shen et al., 2019, Randelli and Martellozzo, 2019, Su et al., 2019, Mousa and Karwan, 2020). On the one hand, when smallholder farmers shift from the agricultural production-based livelihood strategy to a combined livelihood strategy with rural tourism, it includes the contention for the quantity and quality of labor force, capital investment, and other resources between agricultural and non-agricultural production activities. Therefore, as the more profitable and less time-consuming planting methods popularize among farmers concerning how cultivated land is used (Taboada et al., 2017, Jendoubi et al., 2020, Ichinose et al., 2020, Hoang et al., 2020), the usage of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals doubles (Adhikari et al., 2004, Shackleton et al., 2007, Xi et al., 2014). Simultaneously, in front of the public emerge such issues as stagnant grain production, land circulation, property rights adjustment, and soil nutrient enrichment (Xi et al., 2015, Hua et al., 2017, Wayessa, 2020). On the other hand, when smallholder farmers thoroughly shift from the agricultural production-based livelihood strategy to the alternative livelihood strategies represented by rural tourism, the competition between agricultural and non-agricultural production activities is aggravated and leads to further farmland abandonment (Zhang and Zhao, 2015). Meanwhile, because of the occurring non-agriculturalization of farmers' livelihoods, poverty can be alleviated and land utilization behaviors—including deforestation for farmland—reduced, thus mitigating the damage to the ground coverage and promoting the restoration of mountain vegetation (Wang and Yang, 2012, Hoefle, 2016, Shao et al., 2018).

Generally, current research on agricultural production under rural tourism has not been analyzed holistically from smallholder farmers' perspective. First, most studies describing the rural tourism development process are based on historical data or field surveys to comparatively analyze the development status between two or more periods. Few studies have investigated this problem on a long-term basis in designated areas. Second, focusing on quantitative analysis from certain aspects such as input and output to estimate agricultural production, such aspects as its yield, structure, and efficiency have not been comprehensively discussed. Finally, the essence of the trade-off between agricultural production and rural tourism concerns the opportunity costs caused by the transformation of farmers' livelihoods. In this regard, few studies have explored from the perspective of smallholder farmers' livelihoods, ignoring how the production behaviors of smallholder farmers influence regional agricultural production. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the changes in agricultural production under the rural tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, explore whether there is a trade-off between agricultural production and rural tourism and its severity, and put forward sustainable development suggestions from smallholder farmers' perspective.

Section snippets

Analytical framework

For the framework of our study, rural tourism development was first taken as an external impact factor affecting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. In contrast, the changing process of farmer types was used as evidence to describe rural tourism development. Second, a comparative analysis was conducted regarding yield, structure, and efficiency of agricultural production between different farmer types throughout our research cycle to reflect the changes in agricultural production behaviors

Development process of rural tourism

From 2005 to 2019, rural tourism in Zhagana Village was no longer non-agricultural production involving few farmers and serving as income supplement; instead, it grew to become a vital pillar industry for the local economy and covered 3/4 of farmers who followed this trend in different ways (Fig. 3). According to the classification of farmer types, rural tourism development in this region can be divided into the three following main stages:

(1)
The beginning stage of rural tourism. Zhagana Village

Discussions

Our study's empirical results suggested that an increasing number of farmers are gradually involved in the development and construction of local rural tourism in different forms with the continuous prosperity of this industry in Zhagana Village. Under this background, the level of agricultural productivity in the entire region was not stalled or weakened, and the average annual outputs of food and energy products were enhanced in fluctuations. This is in line with the actual increase in

Conclusions

Since 2005, Zhagana Village has successively experienced the beginning stage (2005–2012) and developing stage (2013–2016) of rural tourism, entering the stable stage (2016–2019). The number and types of farmers involved in the development of rural tourism became gradually stable. In a long historical period, animal husbandry and farming functioned as the primary food sources for farmers, while forestry represented their energy's primary source. However, in the context of a certain degree of

CRediT authorship contribution statement

The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. We declare that we do not have any commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the work submitted.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42001249).

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Citation Excerpt :
Also, the green soil cultivation technique and the suitability-based cropping system are the foundation of cropland intensification. Studies have indicated that cropland intensification approaches promoted increased crop production by 13.53% in Tibet from 2008 to 2020 (Yang et al., 2021). The increased contribution of management practices to grassland benefits from grassland rehabilitation (Zhang et al., 2016).
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Agricultural production under rural tourism on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: From the perspective of smallholder farmers

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Analytical framework

Development process of rural tourism

Discussions

Conclusions

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Acknowledgments

Conflicts of Interest

Ecol. Econ.

Ecol. Econ.

Ecol. Econ.

Glob. Planet. Chang.

Tour. Manag.

J. Arid Environ.

J. Rural Stud.

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Ecol. Indic.

Agric. Syst.

Environ. Dev.

J. Clean. Prod.

Land Use Policy

Land Use Policy

Ecol. Indic.

For. Policy Econ.

Tour. Manag. Perspect.

Ecol. Econ.

Tour. Manag.

J. Arid Environ.

Field Crop. Res.

Land Use Policy

Land Use Policy

Land Use Policy