Agricultural practices and sustainable livelihoods: Rural transformation within the Loess Plateau, China

• We present a conceptual framework for sustainable rural livelihoods.
• We apply the framework to the impact of agricultural practices.
• New agricultural practices have had positive and significant impacts.
• Farmers' livelihood and environmental indices have been improved.
• Similar transformations can be achieved in similar regions.

Effective agricultural practices can enable and sustain rural livelihoods, particularly in rapidly developing and transforming areas such as the Chinese Loess Plateau. Drawing from the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), a conceptual framework for agricultural practices and sustainable rural livelihoods for the Yangou watershed within the Chinese Loess Plateau is presented and discussed. It is found that agricultural practices that include building terraces, returning sloped farmlands to forestland and grassland, and expanding orchards all have had positive and significant impacts on farmers' livelihood assets, strategies, outcomes, and vulnerabilities. From 1997 to 2006, 48.4 ha (95%) sloped farmland in the Yangou watershed was converted to new land management, and the percentages of income from fruit sale and sale of labor to total income dramatically increased by 59% and 14%, respectively. The watershed community also experienced 159% raise in per capita net income from 1997 to 2003, while the watershed itself experienced a 99% decrease in sediment yield from 1998 to 2007. These positive and significant impacts of new agricultural practices on the sustainable rural livelihoods of the Yangou watershed are evident in the community's reduced dependence upon grain and subsidies income, the diversified strategies for livelihood, and the improved environmental indices. The successful implementation of new agricultural land management practices and policies in the Yangou watershed strongly suggest that similar transformations can be achieved in similar regions throughout China's vast rural areas of the Loess Plateau.