Herders livelihood risk and coping strategies in the context of the Herders Settlement Project case of the Altay Region

Households as basic ecoeconomic system are the implementer of agricultural and implementation
of major policies and are often exposed to various natural and human risks. The Altay Region is one of the key
pastoral areas in Xinjiang Autonomous Region and the whole country. Take the Grainto Green and the
Herdsmen Settlement Project as examples, the herdsmen face all kinds of production and living pressure, and
are exposed to various livelihood risks during the implementation process of agricultural major policy. Herder
household survey in the Altay Region was done to analyze the main livelihood risks faced by herders and their
coping strategies. Factors affecting risk coping strategies were analyzed by binary Probit regression model. The
main risks faced by herders were found to be: market risk, unemployment risk, children’s education/ marriage
risk, medical risk. Children’s education/ marriage risk was the first livelihood risk worried by Herders followed
by medical risks. Herders usually take government assistance as a coping strategy when they face livelihood
risks, they also adopt coping strategies such as seeking helps from others, social insurance, sale of assets,
going out to work or other coping strategies, dropping out of school is the last one they will adopt. Financial
capital and human capital are the main factors affect risk coping strategies adopted by herders, followed by
natural capital and physical capital. Social capital is the weakest. Based on improving the herders’ livelihood
risks resilience, the present work puts forward some policy recommendations to promote herders’ stable
 settlement