Effects of herdsmen's livelihood capital on drought response strategies: A case study from Inner Mongolia

Based on the framework of sustainable livelihood analysis, this study used survey data from 848 herdsmen in 15 banners (counties) in 5 grassland types in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Using this sample, we evaluated the weight of different types of livelihood capital using the entropy method and established a binary logit regression model to quantitatively analyze the relationship between the livelihood capital and drought response strategies. The results showed that: 1) 50.12% of herdsmen in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region think that there has been drought in the past 5 years, and 47.52% of herdsmen adopted drought response strategies; 2) The strategies of herdsmen to deal with the drought were mainly to buy forage, sell livestock, and move to pasture, accounting for 33.02%, 15.80%, and 10.38%, respectively; and 3) The livelihood capital stock of herdsmen had a significant effect on the measures they took to deal with the drought, such as purchasing forage, selling livestock, grazing on the farm, fostering livestock, and going out to work. Because of the low stock of livelihood capital, the herdsmen in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have few strategies for dealing with the risk of drought. Therefore, we should strengthen herdsmen's ability to resist drought by conducting technical training, developing diversified credit supply modes, and establishing a professional herdsmen's association.