Farmers’ perception and adaptive behavior to environmental degradation in the lower reaches of Shiyang River

The ecological environment in the lower reaches of Shiyang River has been deteriorating fast and limiting the sustainable development of the watershed. Thus the watershed was in an urgent need of effective response strategies for environment degradation. The Shiyang River Basin has the most densely populated, the highest level of water resources development and use, and the most prominent water conflicts. It is the inland river basin with the most severe ecological and environmental problems in China. To understand farmers’ perception and adaptation strategies to ecological changes in the basin was essential for the development of countermeasures. It was also necessary to have farmers’ perception on the problems of the ecological environment in order to understand their adaptive behaviors. Using questionnaires and interviews in the lower reaches of Shiyang River, we analyzed perception and coping strategies of farmers in the study area (lake region, Quanshan region and dam region) to water resources shortage, land desertification, land salinization and sandstorms environment in the lower reaches of Shiyang River. The multiple regression model analysis was used to assess the impact of farmers livelihood capital on their adaptation strategies in the inland river basin. The results showed that the strongest perceptibility of farmers was of water shortage, followed by sandstorm frequency, and the last one was of land desertification and salinization. Farmers’ perceptions of water resources shortage, land desertification, land salinization and sandstorm frequency were significantly different in the different regions of the study area, which mainly due to differences in natural environment, resources endowment and geographic conditions. Farmers’ perceptibility of water resource shortage and land salinization successively strengthened while perceptibility of sandstorm frequency successively weakened from dam region to Quanshan region, and to lake region. For the dam region, Quanshan region and lake region, diversity indexes of response strategies to water resources shortage and land salinization successively increased. The diversity indexes of response strategies to land desertification and sandstorm of the lake region were highest, that to desertification in Quanshan region was lowest. To cope with water shortage, farmers mainly adopted water-saving technology in the dam region, developed characteristic horticulture in Quanshan region, and reduced irrigation in the lake region. In dealing with land salinization, farmers mainly enhancing seeding, adopted crop rotation and inter-planting in the dam region, improved cultivation, leveled land in Quanshan region, and grew salt-tolerant plants or abandoned saline lands in the lake region. Desertification and sandstorm pressure was mainly concern of the government, which had adopted countermeasures of sand controlling, irrigation and cultivation land reduction, and afforestation. Family labor, per-capita cultivated land, leadership potential, perceptibility of water resources scarcity had remarkable effects on the diversity index of the strategy of response to water resources shortage. Family labor, per-capita cultivated land, fixed asset, trust to the neighbors, and perception on land desertification had significant effects on the diversity index of the strategy of response to desertification. Then per-capita income, trust to the neighbors, water resources shortage, and perception on soil salinization had significant effects on the diversity index of the strategy of response to soil salinity.