Quantifying socioeconomic characteristics of drought-sensitive regions: Evidence from Chinese provincial agricultural data

In some cases, even relatively minor perturbations to growing season rainfall cause major harvest losses. In other cases, harvests are unaffected even by major rainfall perturbations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible socioeconomic reasons why some regions’ harvests are especially sensitive to changes in rainfall using rainfall and agricultural data from eastern China. Results suggest that for wheat and maize farmers, technical inputs were significant factors for maintaining harvest levels in low rainfall years. Rice harvests were more dependent on indicators related to access to labour. This work provides a preliminary step to quantitatively assess characteristics that enhance adaptive capacity in different cropping systems.