The impact of drought on the field site hamlets

Among the field site hamlets, Baijia was the least affected by the drought. In fact, according to the villagers, it was the seasonal floods rather than drought that exerted most impact on their hamlet, as in the last two decades, much of the cultivated land close to the river had been periodically under water. Nevertheless, severe drought since 2009 greatly disturbed tobacco production in Baijia as in other areas of Yunnan. Insufficient irrigation water and the low quality of water caused by drought brought diseases and pest infestation to tobacco leaves, which seriously reduced production output and eroded villagers’ farm incomes. Data from my household survey indicated that between 2010 and 2014, farm households in Baijia experienced an average 40 percent decline in yields. However, rather than abandoning their tobacco fields, local residents rented land from their neighbours and relatives to expand their production in response to falling farm

income.35 _{They cultivated multiple tobacco fields to spread risk and reduce the impact of}

rainfall anomalies.

According to villagers, the well-developed infrastructure within the community worked in their favour. Well-functioning water conservancy facilities, including two collective wells, a community reservoir and a piped water system, combined with convenient transport guaranteed villagers’ access to water for both domestic and agricultural purposes even in the driest years.

Meanwhile, compared with other field site hamlets, villagers in Baijia were more likely to find employment in local industries, and to some extent, this compensated for their loss of income from agricultural production. The impact of drought on agricultural production increased the number of people involved in local off-farm work in Baijia. During the course of my fieldwork, 36 of the 58 households in Baijia had at least one member working in local industry; double the number before 2009.

Drought also exerted limited impact on Walnut Hamlet and Silk Hamlet. Compared with tobacco, walnuts are more adaptable to an arid climate, and, as in Baijia, when the rainfall was low, farmers in Walnut Hamlet were able to draw on their well-functioning water conservancy facilities including two collective wells and one public reservoir. Nevertheless, villagers in Walnut Hamlet still reported a 20–30 percent decrease in production yields during the period of drought.

Although there were no surface water resources within Walnut Hamlet, the nearest river was less than 3 km from the hamlet, as the crow flies. However, villagers had to go a long way around to get access to the river water due to the topography. In a normal year, rather than travelling long distances to fetch water from the river, residents in Walnut Hamlet relied heavily on groundwater and rain water. The consecutive years of drought made rain water storage impossible and greatly threatened the groundwater supply. As a result, river water became an important supplementary water source. To facilitate villagers’ access to water from the river, the hamlet head designed a water diversion system, composed of a powerful pump, and pipes. He then successfully obtained funding from the county government to build the facilities. In early 2013, a pumping station was set up by the river, and pipes linking the river to the existing hamlet collective reservoir

were put in. However, due to the difference in elevation between the river and the hamlet, the pump was not powerful enough to draw river water to the hamlet. In late 2013, additional funds were allocated to Walnut Hamlet for another pump to fix the problem. The entire project was finally completed in early 2014. Supported by the new system, the reported household annual income from walnuts in the hamlet rebounded from less than 10,000 yuan in 2012 to 30,000 yuan in 2014.

In Silk Hamlet, the relatively short growth cycle of mulberry trees and silkworms means that farmers are able to achieve multiple rounds of production in a year, from spring to late autumn. Usually, drought had the greatest impact on agriculture in spring. Silkworm farmers generally suffered considerable reduction in production during this season. However, they could make up for such losses in summer and autumn. In addition, to facilitate cocoon production, the county government funded the construction and maintenance of an irrigation system in Silk Hamlet, which further decreased the impact of drought on the hamlet. Consequently, silkworm production was regarded as a drought resisting industry by the county government.

In the meantime, responding positively to the ongoing “East-to-West Silk Industrial Restructuring Project,” lowlands villages in the county have been further required to expand their production. Village governments within the county were required to sign forms specifying the numbers of households and acreage involved in silkworm raising and mulberry planting. Combining individual plots into large tracts of land for mulberry tree growing was one of the key criteria for performance evaluation, while the failure to fulfil the quotas led to circulation of a notice of criticism and withdrawal of village committees’ subsidies by the township government. The village leaders complained that the township government continued pushing them to further expand production even though all the flat land in the village had been planted with mulberry trees during the past five years. To fulfil the new quota, they had to persuade villagers to grow mulberries on mountain land.

According to villagers, this brought little payoff but increased their workloads. Informants said most of their mountainous plots were far from irrigation channels and difficult to access. To make effective use of these plots, they grew vegetables such as radishes and corn to feed their livestock. These vegetables were drought-resistant and

could be irrigated by rain water collected in small water cisterns near the plots. However, growing mulberry trees required much more water than growing vegetables. Rain water from the small cisterns were rarely enough to irrigate them, which meant villagers had to carry water from long distances. It became even more difficult to ensure enough water to irrigate mulberry trees during the drought. The result was that most of their mulberry trees were poorly grown, and could not be used to feed the silkworms.

The most drought-affected hamlets were Shijia and North Hamlet. Informants in these two hamlets reported that their households’ tobacco production declined by 50 to 70 percent over five years, due to drought. In 2014, none of the households earned more than 10,000 yuan from growing tobacco, whereas in 2008, 70 percent of households earned over 30,000 yuan. Nearly 60 percent of tobacco fields in these two hamlets were abandoned between 2010 and 2014, due to a lack of irrigation water. The result was that half of the land in these hamlets, particularly land that is difficult to access and far from water sources, was not planted with tobacco. Instead, villagers grew corn, radishes and pumpkins to feed their livestock. In Shijia, there were increases in the number of goats raised, and also increases in income from goat raising. This partly compensated for loss of income from tobacco.

Aside from the considerable reduction in tobacco production, farmers in both Shijia and North Hamlet were also worried about the survival of their walnut forests. Walnut and pepper growing became extremely difficult during the drought. With limited water, villagers were not able to water and fertilize their trees on a regular basis. From 2011 to 2014, over half of the walnut and pepper forests in Shijia and North Hamlet died. According to villagers, they did not suffer great loss of income from walnut and pepper, because their walnut and pepper trees were not mature enough to bear fruit, and seedlings were offered free by the county government. However, they bore the cost of grafting, pesticide and fertilizer by themselves. More importantly, they devoted their time and energy to cultivate them. As one villager commented “Although we were pushed by the village committee to grow walnut and pepper, as a farmer, once you have sown, you work hard and expect a good harvest. Therefore, I was so frustrated by this fruitless attempt.”36

To make matters worse, the two hamlets suffered a shortage of drinking water. As a consequence of using excessive groundwater for both domestic and agricultural purposes, groundwater storage was severely depleted during the driest years. In 2010, the only collective well, which was also the only local drinking water supply in Shijia, dried up for nearly six months; some villagers said they had never experienced this before. The crisis was temporarily alleviated through the delivery of drinking water by the county government. Between 2010 and 2012, drinking water was delivered to Shijia by the local police, every two or three months. However, water provided by the government was not enough for daily household use. Most of the time, villagers had to buy water from the township. The difficult condition was finally relieved in 2012, when the villagers were funded by the government to build and renovate collective water conservancy facilities.37

The only collective well in North Hamlet also dried up between 2010 and 2012, and inhabitants in the hamlet suffered even more than villagers in Shijia. During the drought, there was no provision of funding for the construction of water facilities in this hamlet. Although the county government assigned local police to deliver drinking water and water storage equipment, such as tanks, to affected populations in this region, poor transport conditions hampered North Hamlet villagers’ access to these supplies. Most of the time, they struggled to find new water sources by themselves. For nearly four years, they travelled long distances to fetch water from a river at the foot of the mountains. Some prosperous villagers tried to dig deeper wells, but the water quality remained a concern. Villagers claimed that they knew very little about the groundwater in the region, and they were not able to test the quality of the water by themselves.

Below is a summary of the characteristics of the field site hamlets and the impact of drought on these hamlets.

Table 3.1 Summary of hamlet characteristics and

the impact of drought

County Lotus Bronze

Hamlet Shijia Walnut Hamlet

North

Hamlet Silk Hamlet Baijia

Ethnicity39 _{Han Yi Yi Han Han}

Hamlet type Mountainous Mountainous Mountainous Semi-mount

ainous Mountainous Distance from nearest surface water sources (river, lake, large reservoir) (km) 10 3 4 6 0 Distance from nearest township(s) (km) 9 14.5 23 5 6 and 8 Accessibility 2 km un-paved road to the location of the village committee, 7 km concrete motor road to the township Concrete motor road to the township 5 km unpaved road (inaccessible to cars) to the location of the village committee, 18 km unpaved motor road to the township Concrete motor road to the township Concrete motor road to the township

38 _{Figures in this table were provided by village committees.}

County Lotus Bronze Hamlet Shijia Walnut

Hamlet

North

Hamlet Silk Hamlet Baijia Annual

precipitation (mm) 40

800 820 750 810 991.5

Water sources Groundwater Groundwater Groundwater

Large reservoir and groundwater River and groundwater Access to tapped water (% of households) 70 100 50 100 100 Irrigation (% of arable land with irrigation channels 0 0 0 80 70 Main cash income sources41 Tobacco, goats, migrant work Walnuts, migrant work Tobacco, migrant work Silkworms, migrant work Tobacco, local off-farm work, migrant work Ave. annual disposable income (yuan) per capita42 6,451 8,303 6,175 8,113 9,788

40 _{All the field site hamlets belong to the semi humid (annual rainfall between 400mm to 800mm) or} humid regions (annual rainfall over 800mm). See Li et al. 2016.

41 _{In all the field site hamlets, most villagers in their late teens and 20s leave home and engage in migrant} waged work in the cities. Therefore, migrant waged work is not a very useful aspect for comparative studies in terms of type of economy in the field site hamlets. Meanwhile, migration earnings may contribute a proportion of household income, but during my field study, over 80 percent of informants in the hamlets insisted that their households maintain a farming-oriented economy.

42 _{These figures were provided by village committees for the hamlets, 2014. The figures incorporate} migrant earnings. It is difficult to separate earnings from migration work from agricultural income or determine how migrant earnings are distributed between household members in the city and those in the countryside. Despite this, the income figures provide a useful basis for comparing the economic standing of the villages.Rural per capita income in Yunnan in 2014 was 7456.1 yuan (NBS 2016b).

County Lotus Bronze Hamlet Shijia Walnut

Hamlet

North

Hamlet Silk Hamlet Baijia Major stress during