680 Hum Ecol (2010) 38:675–690 households.4 All three subgroups are involved with traditional agricultural techniques used and total number agriculture to different extents. of modern agricultural techniques used. Research has shown that household income and expen- Measurement of Variables diture are especially difficult to measure in rural areas of developing countries. To reduce measurement error, the The survey addressed the four components of rural survey focused on the monetary components of rural household livelihoods identified in the conceptual frame- household incomes and expenses. Household income was work: (1) agricultural production; (2) use of agricultural measured as annual cash income from both farming and technologies; (3) household income, expenditure, and non-farming sources in 2007. Household living expendi- assets; and (4) resource use and management. All of these tures referred to annual monetary spending on regular were measured by multiple variables. In addition, a number consumer goods and services in rural areas in 2007, of socio-demographic characteristics of households were excluding large, one off expenses (e.g., house construction) included. and the living costs of labor migrants or student members in Four variables measured the agricultural production urban areas. Per capita annual cash income and living practices of rural households. Farmland use, the most expense (in RMB) were calculated to account for differ- important aspect of agricultural production, was measured ences in a rural household’s size and composition. In by the size of per laborer cultivated land (mu) in the year of addition, an index variable was included as an indicator of the survey (2008). Respondents were also asked to indicate household consumer assets, created according to Filmer and whether or not in 2008 their household was engaged in the Pritchett (2001) using principle component analysis to following areas of agricultural production: (1) grain crops; derive weights for constructing a linear index of a group (2) potatoes; (3) beans; (4) vegetables; (5) fruits; (6) oil of asset variables. The asset indicators in this survey plants; (7) commercialized poultry feeding; (8) aquaculture; include household ownership of 19 different durable consumer goods,5 building materials and style of the and (9) livestock breeding. A measure of production diversity (total number of types of agricultural production household dwelling, and the household’s drinking water involved) was created by summing up the dichotomous sources. For ease of interpretation, the index was rescaled responses (0 = no, 1 = yes). Two other variables were to a range from 0 to 5. included pertaining to the production of major grain crops Three variables were included pertaining to rural in 2008: yield of rice (kg) and yield of corn (kg) per mu of households’ resource use and management activities. farmland. The proportion of firewood and crop residues in the Use of agricultural technologies was measured by three total fuels used by a household indicated its dependency variables: the cost (in RMB) of chemical inputs, including on biophysical resources for cooking and heating. Use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, in the year prior to the general forest resources was measured by asking survey (2007), and two constructed composite variables respondents to identify whether or not their household indicating the levels of use of different types of agricultural regularly utilizes any types of timber and non-timber technologies. Respondents were asked to identify for the forest resources listed in the survey, including trees, most recent year whether or not their household used 14 mushrooms and fungi, medicinal materials and herbs, different agricultural techniques. The traditional farming wild edible vegetables, wild fruits and nuts, non- technology category includes five: (1) tilling before protected wild animals, and grazing for livestock. A cultivating crops; (2) applying organic fertilizer as base new variable (total number of types of forest products or manure before planting; (3) intercropping; (4) multiple services used) was created based on the sum of responses cropping; and (5) fixed crop rotation. The modern farming (0 = no, 1 = yes) across these seven items. Respondents technology category includes nine practices: (1) using a were also asked to indicate whether or not their large amount of chemical fertilizer; (2) applying chemical household had undertaken any of the following natural fertilizer according to the agricultural extension office’s resource improvement activities in the past twelve suggestions; (3) applying pesticide on farmland; (4) months: (1) planting trees or hedges on household applying herbicide on farmland; (5) farming under plastic; farmland and/or forested land; (2) protecting trees in (6) irrigating farmland with water pump; (7) using a household farmland and/or forested land; (3) building machine for sowing; (8) using a machine for harvesting; stone or soil ridges on sloping farmland to prevent soil (9) using no-tilling techniques. Responses (0 = no, 1 = yes) 5 These durable consumer goods include bicycle, sewing machine, were summed up as two variables: total number of black/white television, color television, tape recorder, stereo, washing machine, electric fan, refrigerator, camera, VHS/DVD players, 4 Households having both labor migrant and local off-farm work telephone, mobile phone, air conditioner, electric cooker, water heater, members were classified as labor-migrant households. microwave oven, induction cooker, motorcycle, and automobile.