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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1511505
This article is part of the Research Topic Indigenous and Local Knowledge as a Catalyst for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security View all articles

Exploring the sustainability of farmers' livelihood-land use systems from a coupled coordination perspective

Provisionally accepted
Zhaoxu Liu Zhaoxu Liu 1Jinghua Sun Jinghua Sun 1*Yu Li Yu Li 1Hao Wang Hao Wang 2Ziyu Zhang Ziyu Zhang 1
  • 1 Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China
  • 2 Natural Resources Aerial Geophysical Exploration and Remote Sensing Center of China Geological Survey, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study explores the relationship between rural households' livelihood capital status and land use effects (LUEs) in Qufu City, Shandong Province, China. The analysis is based on data collected through a triangulation method, combining quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative (interview) approaches. Using a coupling degree (CD) model and a coupling coordination degree (CCD) model within a human-land system framework, this study evaluates the coupling and coordination between rural households' livelihoods and land use as subsystems. It also examines the impact of LUE and CCD on rural households' livelihood strategies through Skinner's reinforcement theory.Results indicate variable CD and CCD across households with different livelihood strategies. In particular, the CD for the four household types ranged from 0.9 to 1, denoting a high-level coupling stage, with off-farm employment-oriented households registering the highest degree of 0.996. In CCD, professional households achieved a high degree of 0.761, whereas the others displayed a medium coupling coordination stage between 0.5 and 0.7. Professional households and balanced households showed superior LUE and CCD, with more than 50% of these households planning to maintain their original strategies. By contrast, households with off-farm employment-oriented or conventional strategies exhibited low LUE and CCD, with fewer than 50% of these households planning to retain their initial strategies. Professional agriculture-based livelihood strategies help improve the livelihood levels of farmers and promote the rational use of cultivated land resources, thereby making them particularly attractive to households engaged in agricultural production. This research contributes insights valuable for promoting the sustainable development of rural households' livelihoods and land use.

    Keywords: livelihood capital status1, land use effect2, coupling coordination analysis3, livelihood strategy4, Skinner's reinforcement theory5

    Received: 15 Oct 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Sun, Li, Wang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jinghua Sun, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China

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