Livelihood Diversity of Peasants in Hilly Region of Southwestern China

In order to more truly reflect the change of livelihood diversity of peasants, hilly region of southwestern China with relatively remote location and backward economy is selected as the investigation region. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is adopted to conduct field investigation in order to collect the suggestions from peasants. According to the economic development level, a total of 4 villages in 2 poverty counties (Yunyang County and Youyang County) in Chongqing City are taken as the investigation areas using the methods of both random sampling and importance sampling. Effects of diversity of peasants’ livelihood on living standard in poverty areas are discussed, as well as the change of the relationship between peasants and land. A total of 185 peasant households in the 4 villages are investigated from the aspects of family scale, age structure, education degree, income structure and other basic information, as well as the land use situation and the diversity of peasants’ livelihood. Their livelihood can be divided into eight types, which are migrant labor, farming, doing business, teacher, enterpriser, transporter, civil servant and others. Change of peasants’ livelihood is analyzed from the aspects of income difference, the relationship between livelihood and income level, and the relationship between livelihood and land management area. Research result shows that diversity of peasants’ livelihood has played a major role in the increase of peasants’ income. And land revenue is no longer the main source of household income and peasants’ dependence on the land is gradually reduced.