Next Article in Journal
Cucumber Downy Mildew Disease Prediction Using a CNN-LSTM Approach
Previous Article in Journal
Altering Microbial Communities in Substrate to Stimulate the Growth of Healthy Button Mushrooms
 
 
Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
Journals
Agriculture
Volume 14
Issue 7
10.3390/agriculture14071153
agriculture-logo
Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Propose a Special Issue
► Article Menu

Article Menu

share Share announcement Help format_quote Cite question_answer Discuss in SciProfiles thumb_up
...
Endorse textsms
...
Comment
first_page
settings
Order Article Reprints
Font Type:
Arial Georgia Verdana
Font Size:
Aa Aa Aa
Line Spacing:
Column Width:
Background:
Article

Evolutionary Trends and Hotspot Analysis of Livelihood Strategy for Agricultural Residents Based on Bibliometrics

by
Jiancheng Zhai
1,2,*,†,
Xiao Sun
3,†,
Xueqin Hu
1,
Jun Tian
1 and
Zhiqiang Huang
1,2
1
School of Earth Sciences, East China University of Technology, Nanchang 330013, China
2
Natural Reserve Planning and Research Institute, East China University of Technology, Nanchang 330013, China
3
College of Animal Science and Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330029, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Agriculture 2024, 14(7), 1153; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14071153
Submission received: 17 June 2024 / Revised: 12 July 2024 / Accepted: 13 July 2024 / Published: 16 July 2024
(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management)
Browse Figures
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Livelihood strategies are an effective response to survival risks and stress shocks. Agricultural residents engaged in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, who are extremely dependent on natural resources, are vulnerable to various livelihood risks. Therefore, the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents are increasingly receiving attention from researchers around the world. However, research on the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents has not yet been systematically analyzed through bibliometrics. Our study was based on 1424 publications in the Web of Science Core Collection database (WoSCC) from 2014 to 2023 to analyze the development history, research hotspots, and trends in the field. Bibliometric analysis was conducted on publications, countries, institutions, authors, journals, and keywords, as well as cited journals and cited references using Excel and CiteSpace software. The number of publications has steadily increased and showed an upward trend. The United States and China were the countries with the most contributions, and Chinese institutions were more active. Cooperation between authors was relatively weak. Sustainability was one of the most productive and highly cited journals. The research hotspots mainly included the relationship between climate change and the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, the relationship between the land and the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, the sustainable development of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, and the characteristics of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents. This is the first time that bibliometric and visual analyses have been conducted on the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, which may further promote development of the field and lay a foundation for future research.

1. Introduction

Clarifying and resolving the interrelationships between humans and ecosystems, including conflicts and dependencies, is one of the key issues in achieving sustainable development. Livelihood is a way and means of making a living based on assets, abilities, and activities, which is the most basic way of survival for humans. When a livelihood can be restored under risks and pressures, while maintaining or even enhancing its capacity and capital without damaging natural resources in the present and future, it is a sustainable livelihood [1]. To achieve a sustainable livelihood, humans constantly transform their way of life by combining, coordinating, and utilizing their livelihood capital, which is known as a livelihood strategy. The Sustainable Livelihood Analysis Framework proposed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) defined livelihood strategies as the survival strategies chosen by humans to achieve their livelihood goals, considering fragile environments, integrating the assets they can use, and under the influence of policies and other factors [2,3]. Livelihood strategies are also the sum of a series of behavioral strategies made by humans to reconfigure their livelihood capital (household capital, labor, land, work methods, etc.) in pursuit of maximizing profits. Livelihood strategies are dynamically changing. When the natural and social environments, as well as the family, undergo changes, humans will choose to transform their livelihood strategies to address the new relationships between humans and ecosystems. The transformation may be reflected in the re-selection of livelihood activities, the re-adjustment of resource acquisition channels, or re-adaptation of the ecological environment. Livelihood strategy transformation becomes the optimal choice for humans to respond to changes in the relationships between humans and ecosystems [4].
Agricultural residents usually refer to the population engaged in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, and are the most basic socio-economic unit that integrates production and consumption [5,6,7]. Affected by the nature of the industry, agricultural residents are extremely dependent on natural resources and are highly vulnerable to various livelihood risks. Their livelihood strategies are also the most susceptible to changes, which are the result of their subjective will and objective impact, and are influenced by multiple factors such as natural capital and social capital [8]. For residents engaged in agriculture, Kuang FY et al. (2020) found that natural and market risks are the main livelihood risks for farmers in agricultural production. Most farmers changed livelihood strategies, such as crop variety adjustment, water and fertilizer management, agricultural finance, and agricultural technology support, to cope with livelihood risks [9]. Ren JH et al. (2022) found that livelihood capital is a fundamental condition that significantly affects green agricultural production among farmers, while ecological cognition has a positive regulatory effect, although its contribution is not significant [10]. For residents engaged in forestry, the shift from an extreme reliance on extractive forest resources to a more diverse lifestyle, such as the promotion of apiculture, agroforestry, livestock rearing, village savings and cooperative schemes, vegetable growing, and business training, is usually the direction of their livelihood strategy transformation [11]. Forestry residents who transition to participatory forestry livelihood strategies will feel more secure, their status as women will improve, and their social relationships will become more solid [12]. For residents engaged in animal husbandry, when the resources they rely on (such as grassland resources) are impacted, livelihood capital will affect their preference for livelihood strategy choices [13]. Ding WQ et al. (2022) investigated the livelihood strategies related to livestock reduction behavior among herdsmen in northern China, as well as their relationship with grassland ecological subsidy policies [14]. For residents engaged in fishery, fishing is the main source of income. In a policy environment where fishery resources are scarce and urgently need protection, such as China’s ten-year fishing ban policy on the Yangtze River, fishermen may be forced to change their livelihood strategies to promote the protection and restoration of fishery resources as soon as possible. Here, related research is also increasing [15,16,17].
The livelihood strategies of agricultural residents are receiving increasing attention from researchers and professionals around the world, and a considerable number of research papers have emerged, but there is a lack of systematic review. The bibliometric method uses mathematical and statistical models to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of the literature. By quantitatively processing information such as the literature quantity and authors, it achieves visual analysis of the hot literature, hot topics, and knowledge evolution in the research field, thereby helping researchers better grasp the dynamic changes and developmental trends of related research fields [18,19]. It has been widely applied in quantitative and systematic reviews of various disciplinary fields [20,21,22,23,24]. CiteSpace is a citation visualization literature analysis tool based on scientific metrology and data visualization theory, which can effectively display the developmental trend of a certain discipline or knowledge field in a certain period [25,26]. Therefore, this study aims to use the above methods to address the following research questions: (1) What is the status of research on livelihood strategies for agricultural residents? (2) What is the distribution of research subjects in the field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents over the years, such as countries, authors, institutions, and journals? (3) What are the hotspots and changes of research on livelihood strategies for agricultural residents? (4) What are the trends in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents?

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Data Source

The original data for this study were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection database (WoSCC), which includes authoritative and highly influential academic journals from around the world, and is one of the most representative databases commonly used in bibliometric analysis. The literature retrieval was carried out independently by two researchers on 25 March 2024, and the search was completed within 1 day to avoid data updates and ensure data accuracy. An appropriate and accurate search formula is beneficial for us to comprehensively and accurately search for publications in the specific field. The search formula used was “TS = (farmer or peasant household or forester or herdsman or fisherman or resident) and TS = (cognition or behavior or act*) and TS = (livelihood)”. Article type was restricted to articles and reviews, and the language was limited to English. As of the search date, papers published in 2024 were excluded as they may not represent the full year of 2024. A final product of 1424 publications was chosen for subsequent analysis after a more stringent selection process involving excluding non-compliant articles. The publications contained comprehensive and rich information such as country, author, author institution, and publication year, which are the basic data for our research.
Search records were downloaded and exported to CiteSpace (Version 6.3.R1, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA) software for subsequent bibliometric analysis. The journal impact factor (IF) and quartile were obtained from Journal Citation Reports 2023. The IF is determined by the number of citations and total articles in the last two years and reflects the journal’s influence [27].

2.2. Statistics and Analysis

The data were imported into Microsoft Excel (Version 2010, Redmond, Washington, DC, USA), GraphPad Prism (Version 6.0, GraphPad Prism Software Inc., San Diego, CA, USA), and CiteSpace (Version 6.3.R1). We analyzed the cooperation relationships of countries based on CiteSpace (Version 6.3.R1) and drew an international cooperation network diagram using Scimago Graphica (Version 1.0.35, SRG S.L. Company, Granada, Spain) to present a comprehensive view of the geographic distribution of publications. This study analyzed bibliometric information on the number of publications, countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords, achieving visualization of the knowledge network in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents.

3. Results

3.1. Performance Analysis

We searched for the livelihood strategy of agricultural residents in the WoSCC database indefinitely to obtain comprehensive data and found that a total of 1424 papers have been published since 2014. The annual and accumulated publications in different periods can reflect the developmental trend of this research field. Although the annual publications did not change much before 2018, all of which were below 100, the overall trend was still on the rise (Figure 1). It was worth noting that the number of publications has been increasing year by year from 2018 to 2021, rapidly increasing from 121 to 228. Then, it entered a plateau period, and the number of publications in the past three years (2021–2023) remained between 220–230. Linear regression analysis was performed on the publication time and cumulative publications, with R2 = 0.9614. The fitting effect of the model was good, which conformed to the scientific index growth law proposed by Price, which means that various scientific indicators approximate exponential growth over time [28]. Therefore, the research related to the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents is currently in a rapid development stage, and the speed of publications is also constantly accelerating.

3.2. Analysis of Countries and Institutions

To understand the contribution and collaborative relationship of different countries in the research field of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, we analyzed the number of publications published by 135 countries that were identified. The top 20 most productive countries are presented in Table 1. Through analysis of the data and visual maps, the United States has published the most articles in the field of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, with 261, followed by China (240), the United Kingdom (168), Germany (146), and India (144). A color-coded map presenting a comprehensive view of the geographic distributions of the publications is shown in Figure 2A, with different colors representing the frequency of publications in countries. Analysis of cooperation between countries reveals a total of 315 cooperative relationships among the 135 countries (N = 135, E = 213, Density = 0.0235, Figure 2B). Both the United States and China had produced many publications, but the United States only had cooperative relationships with 3 countries, while China had cooperative relationships with 6. Overall, cooperation among the countries was not very common in the field of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, especially in the top 20 countries, with the most being Mexico and Brazil, all of which were only 7.
Publications from the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents include contributions from 258 institutions. The top 20 most productive institutions in this research field are shown in Table 1. The Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) ranked first, followed by Wageningen University & Research, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), International Maize & Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) are among the 15 members of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which means that the CGIAR has a high contribution in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. Among the top 20 most productive institutions, three belong to China, namely the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources Research, which shows that China plays an important role in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. The cooperation between European and American institutions is closer, while the cooperation between other international institutions is more dispersed (Figure 3).

3.3. Analysis of Journals and Authors

Statistical analysis of publishing journals showed that publications in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents were mainly published in 362 journals. Table 2 lists the top 20 journals in terms of publication volume, mainly including professional journals in environmental science, ecology, agronomy, forestry, oceanography, geosciences, and economics, as well as comprehensive journals. They all belonged to the Q1 or Q2 of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The top 20 journals published 574 articles, accounting for 40.31%. Among them, Sustainability had the highest number of publications, with 158 publications (accounting for 11.1%), which was much higher than other journals. This indicates that this journal has received great attention and is highly recognized by researchers in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. The publication volume of other journals was less than 50 articles, followed by Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (47, accounting for 3.3%), Agricultural Systems (36, accounting for 2.53%), Environment Development and Sustainability (31, accounting for 2.18%), and Forest Policy and Economics, (24, accounting for 1.69%). Among the top 20 journals, Food Security had the highest impact factor (IF = 6.7), followed by Agriculture System (IF = 6.6) and Environmental Science and Pollution Research (IF = 5.8). The top 20 most productive journals were all from Europe or the Americas, with 6 from the Netherlands and Switzerland, and 2 from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, respectively. This indicates that they have played an important role in promoting the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents.
The analysis of authors in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents is shown in Figure 4, which showed that cooperation among authors was relatively weak, with only a very small number of author collaboration networks formed. This indicated that researchers in this field had not yet conducted extensive cooperation, and the research teams were fragmented or in a very small island state.

3.4. Keywords Analysis

Keywords are the core and essence of the literature, which are a highly summarized and refined representation. In the bibliometric keyword analysis, high-frequency keywords can be seen to some extent as research hotspots in a specific field. The co-occurring map of keywords in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents consists of 278 nodes and 388 links, with each node representing a keyword (Figure 5A). The larger nodes were “climate change”, “management”, “livelihoods”, “conservation” and “vulnerability”.
The timeline visualization map of keywords can display the time span of various research hotspots and the interrelationships between different research hotspots [29]. In total, 13 clusters were found in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents (Figure 5C). Compared with #9–#13 clusters, #0–#8 clusters had a longer research time span and a larger number of publications. Clusters #0 and #1 focused on the relationship between the climate and livelihood strategies, such as climate change and climate variability. Cluster #2 and #4 focused on the relationship between the land and livelihood strategies, such as land degradation and land use. Clusters #5 and #7 focused on the relationship between food security, food systems, and livelihood strategies. Clusters #8, #11, and #13 focused on the relationship between sustainable development and livelihood strategies, such as agricultural sustainability and sustainable development goals. Clusters #3, #6, #9, and #10 focused on attitudes, technology adoption, livelihood diversification, and conservation social science.
Keyword bursts can explore the sharp increase of research interest in certain subjects, thereby elucidating the dynamic changes of research hotspots over time and revealing recent research trends [30]. Figure 5B shows the top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. The blue line represents the years from the beginning to the end of the keyword, and the red line represents the period during which the keyword exploded. It can be seen that the keywords cover aspects such as management, poverty, networks, land use, responses, collective action, and farming systems, etc. The trends in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents have gradually shifted from focusing only on the current situation of residents facing livelihood risks (such as management, poverty, land use, and responses) to focusing on the systematic and sustainable development of residents’ livelihood strategies (such as change adaptation, technology adaptation, future, and food systems). Among them, keywords such as soil, collective action, decision making, and management had a higher intensity and a longer impact time.

3.5. Co-Citation Analysis of Cited Journals and Cited References

Co-citation analysis can evaluate the scientific value and influence of publications in a specific research field. Co-citation analysis of cited journals can help with understanding key scientific journals in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. The co-citation analysis result of the cited journals shows that 187 journals were found, and the visualization network map of co-cited journals is shown in Figure 6A. Table 3 lists the top 10 most frequently cited journals. World Development is the most cited journal, followed by Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions and Sustainability, all of which belonged to the Q1 of JCR in social sciences. Science is the journal with the highest impact factor (IF 2023 = 56.9), and as a comprehensive journal, its articles consistently rank among the world’s most cited research.
Co-citation analysis of the cited references related to the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents has also been analyzed, and the visualization map is shown in Figure 6B. Table 4 lists the top 10 most frequently cited references. Out of the top 10 cited references, four (rank 1, 4, 6, 10) are related to climate change [31,32,33,34], which precisely illustrates the vulnerability of agricultural residents’ livelihoods and their susceptibility to impacts such as climate change, thereby prompting them to shift their original livelihood strategies. Two of them (rank 2, 3) are reports on the current situation of agricultural and fishery residents [35,36]. There are two cited references (rank 7, 8) on livelihood research methods, namely partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) [37] and the household livelihood resilience approach (HLRA) [38]. The remaining two cited references (rank 5, 9) are about the role of livelihood assets in livelihood strategies [39], and how perceptions can improve conservation and environmental management [40].

4. Discussion

In the 1980s and 1990s, livelihood was first proposed by scholars such as Chambers and Conway [1], and Sen [41] due to regional poverty issues and received widespread attention from the academic community. The livelihood strategies of agricultural residents received the most attention as their livelihoods were most easily affected, and this research field is a constantly evolving hot topic. We retrieved publications on the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents through the WoSCC database, reviewed the research progress using bibliometrics, and visualized the research results using CiteSpace software. We analyzed the number of publications, countries, institutions, journals, and authors, identified the major contributors, and explored keywords, cited journals, and cited references. We also identified research hotspots from different periods and provided the keywords involved in these research hotspots.
Among the 1424 publications related to the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents retrieved from the WoSCC database, the number of publications increased from 57 in 2014 to 224 in 2023. 2018 marked the boundary between the slow and rapid growth stages. This indicated that the publications in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents were steadily increasing, with great popularity and received increasing attention. Among the 135 countries identified, the United States and China had the highest number of publications, becoming the main drivers of the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. It is worth noting that although the number of publications in China was slightly lower than in the United States, China had more cooperation with other countries than the United States. However, overall, cooperation between countries was not very close. Among the top 20 most productive institutions, China had the largest number of institutions (3), namely, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources Research, which indicated that Chinese were more active in the field of livelihood strategy research and had made great contributions. It was interesting that 5 out of the top 20 most productive institutions were members of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which meant that CGIAR brought a high level of attention to the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents and was also related to its research characteristics. The mission of CGIAR is to carry out scientific research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fisheries, policy, and natural resource management to help developing countries achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty [42].
The 362 journals publishing on livelihood strategies for agricultural residents covered disciplines such as agriculture, forestry, oceanography, ecology, environmental science, geology, and economics. The top 20 most productive journals accounted for 40.31% (574 publications) of the total publications, indicating that these journals played an important leading role and greatly promoted the rapid development of the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. Compared with other journals with less than 50 publications, Sustainability had a particularly prominent number of publications (158, accounting for 11.1%), with an impact factor of 3.9 in 2023. Sustainability mainly focuses on research related to the human environment, culture, economic and social sustainability, and sustainable development. The research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents mainly focuses on the sustainable development of livelihoods, which is one of the preferred publishing directions of the journal. The top 20 most productive journals all came from Europe or the Americas, indicating that Europe and the Americas had built a good platform for the development of research on livelihood strategies for agricultural residents and have a positive contribution. The authors’ collaborative network analysis found that the collaboration among researchers was very weak, with a few research teams presenting as small island types. This was related to the fact that most of the research on livelihood strategies of agricultural residents was concentrated in a certain country, and the regional nature of the research was strong.
Co-citation analysis showed highly cited journals and references, which helped subsequent researchers quickly understand the core knowledge structure and framework of the research field. World Development, Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions and Sustainability were the three most cited journals, suggesting that they were the key scientific journals in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents. It was worth noting that Sustainability was not only a highly cited journal but also a high-yield journal, fully demonstrating the importance of this journal in the research field. Among the top 10 cited references, there were four cited references related to climate. The most cited reference was “Climate Change 2022: Impact, Adaptation, and Vulnerability” released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2022, which comprehensively summarized the latest scientific progress, elaborated on the current and future impacts and risks of climate change, adaptation measures, climate resilience development, and revealed the interdependence between the climate, ecosystems, biodiversity, and human society, providing important scientific basis for further understanding the impacts, risks, and adaptation of climate change [31]. The cited literature that ranked 6th was the 2014 work report [33]. The cited references that were ranked 4th and 10th, respectively, were the studies on livelihood adaptation measures taken by Pakistani farmers and tropical coastal communities to address climate change [32,34]. The cited literature that ranked 7th and 8th were research methods on livelihood strategies, including partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and the Household Livelihood Resilience Approach (HLRA) [37,38]. The cited literature that ranked 2nd and 3rd were the reports on the current situation of agricultural and fishery residents [35,36]. The cited literature ranked 5th and 9th, respectively, were about the role of livelihood assets in livelihood strategies, and people’s views on improving protection and environmental management [39,40].
Keywords are indicative words of publications that can, to some extent, reflect research hotspots in specific fields [43]. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of keyword co-occurrence, clustering, and burst, and found important keywords such as “climate change”, “management”, “livelihoods”, “conservation”, and “vulnerability”. The 13 keyword clusters mainly focused on the relationship between livelihood strategies and the climate, land, food, sustainable development, etc. Keyword burst analysis found that “soil”, “collective action”, “decision making”, and “management” had higher intensities and longer impact times. Therefore, we believe that the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents is mainly reflected in the following research hotspots: (1) the relationship between climate change and livelihood strategies of agricultural residents; (2) the relationship between land and livelihood strategies of agricultural residents; (3) sustainable development of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents; (4) the characteristics of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, such as agricultural residents’ cognition, attitudes, behaviors, diverse livelihoods, decision-making and management, etc.

5. Strengths and Limitations

Due to the complexity and instability of the literature system, it is difficult to obtain sufficient and effective information to quantitatively reveal the macroscopic laws of a certain research field. Bibliometrics relies on the support of mathematical and statistical techniques, which can quantitatively analyze the literature structure of specific research fields. It is an academic link closely related to scientific communication and basic theories. Through visual analysis of bibliometrics, it is possible to clearly describe the research process, hotspots, and trends in specific research fields. However, due to objective reasons, our research might have some limitations. Firstly, the data for this study only came from the WoSCC database. Even though the database is a mainstream data source in bibliometrics and can represent a collection of the literature in a specific research field to a certain extent, it cannot avoid the limitation of not being included in other databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), etc. There may still be some literature on this research field that has not been retrieved. Secondly, the data were limited to articles and reviews, and did not include literature types such as conference reports and books. Thirdly, this study only selected English publications, which might overlook non-English publications such as Chinese, French, Spanish, etc. Nevertheless, we believe that our analysis results are sufficient to reflect the overall situation in the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents.

6. Conclusions

This is the first report to use bibliometrics to explore the research status of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents in recent years, providing useful references for further understanding and research. We found that the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents is receiving increasing attention and showing an overall upward trend. The United States and China were the countries with the highest number of publications, and Chinese institutions held the most seats in the top 20 most productive institutions. The five members of CGIAR also made significant contributions. Researchers tended to publish in the top 20 most productive journals, with Sustainability being the most prominent, far more than other journals. The cooperation between authors was relatively weak. The top three highly cited journals were World Development, Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions and Sustainability. The research hotspots mainly included the relationship between climate change and the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, the relationship between the land and the livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, the sustainable development of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents, and the characteristics of livelihood strategies of agricultural residents. The research trends have gradually shifted from focusing only on the current situation of residents facing livelihood risks (such as management, poverty, land use, and responses) to focusing on the systematic and sustainable development of residents’ livelihood strategies (such as change adaptation, technology adaptation, future, and food systems). This study could help scholars further understand the development process of the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents, and provide ideas for future research.

Author Contributions

J.Z.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Visualization, Writing—original draft preparation, Writing—review and editing, Supervision and project administration, Funding acquisition. X.S.: Software, Visualization, Writing—original draft preparation, Writing—review and editing. X.H.: Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources. J.T.: Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources. Z.H.: Conceptualization, Supervision and project administration. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This study was funded by the Social Science Fund Project of Jiangxi Province (grant number 22JL17D) and the Scientific Research Startup Fund of East China University of Technology (grant number DHBK2019064).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

  1. Chambers, R.; Conway, G. Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century; Institute of Development Studies: Brighton, UK, 1992. [Google Scholar]
  2. DFID. Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets; Department for International Development: London, UK, 1999.
  3. DFID. Sustainable Livelihoods-Building on Strengths; Department for International Development: London, UK, 2002.
  4. Zhang, F.F.; Zhao, X.Y. A review of ecological effect of peasant’s livelihood transformation in China. Acta Ecol. Sin. 2015, 35, 3157–3164. [Google Scholar]
  5. Xie, X.X. The Effects of Farmers’ Participation in Farmland Fallow: A Case Study of the Pilot Area of Serious Ecological Degradation Fallow in Northwest China. Doctoral Dissertation, North West Agriculture and Forestry University, Xianyang, China, 2021. (In Chinese with English Abstract). [Google Scholar]
  6. Man, M.J. Study on the Behavior of Farmers’ Adoption of Agricultural Technology in Traditional Agricultural Areas Northwest. Doctoral Dissertation, Northwestern University, Xi’an, China, 2010. (In Chinese with English Abstract). [Google Scholar]
  7. Hu, B. Study on the Decision Making Behavior of Farmers in Agricultural Structural Adjustment. Doctoral Dissertation, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, 2004. (In Chinese with English Abstract). [Google Scholar]
  8. Wu, Y. Study on Farmers Livelihood Capital Impact upon the Livelihood Strategies. J. South China Agr. Univ. (Soc. Sci. Ed.) 2015, 14, 57–66. [Google Scholar]
  9. Kuang, F.Y.; Jin, J.J.; He, R.; Ning, J.; Wan, X.Y. Farmers’ livelihood risks, livelihood assets and adaptation strategies in Rugao City, China. J. Environ. Manag. 2020, 264, 110463. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  10. Ren, J.H.; Lei, H.Z.; Ren, H.Y. Livelihood Capital, Ecological Cognition, and Farmers’ Green Production Behavior. Sustainability 2022, 14, 16671. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  11. Mawa, C.; Tumusiime, D.M.; Babweteera, F.; Okwir, E.; Tabuti, J.R.S. Community-based forest management promotes survival-led livelihood diversification among forest-fringe communities in Uganda. Front. Forest. Glob. Chang. 2023, 6, 1125247. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  12. Kibria, A.M.G.; Jashimuddin, M.; Makoto, I. Effects of participatory forest management on livelihood capitals of the community in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. J. Forest Res. 2014, 19, 42–51. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  13. Ding, W.Q.; Jimoh, S.O.; Hou, Y.L.; Hou, X.Y.; Zhang, W.G. Influence of Livelihood Capitals on Livelihood Strategies of Herdsmen in Inner Mongolia, China. Sustainability 2018, 10, 3325. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  14. Ding, W.Q.; Jimoh, S.O.; Hou, X.Y.; Shu, X.H.; Dong, H.B.; Bolormaa, D.; Wang, D.B. Grassland Ecological Subsidy Policy and Livestock Reduction Behavior: A Case Study of Herdsmen in Northern China. Rangel. Ecol. Manag. 2022, 81, 78–85. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  15. He, Y.F.; Chen, T.G. Does the 10-Year Fishing Ban Compensation Policy in the Yangtze River Basin Improve the Livelihoods of Fishing Households? Evidence from Ma’anshan City, China. Agriculture 2022, 12, 2088. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  16. Wu, Z.; Tian, G.L.; Li, Y.W.; Xia, Q. Compensation mechanisms for fishermen quit fishing: A case of Jiangsu province, China. Heliyon 2023, 9, e17648. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  17. Xu, Z.; Qayum, M.; Afzal, J.; Aslam, M. Availability and access to Livelihood capital assets for development of sustainable Livelihood strategies of fishermen: A case study of Manchar Lake Pakistan. Heliyon 2023, 9, e22549. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  18. Mazov, N.A.; Gureev, V.N.; Glinskikh, V.N. The Methodological Basis of Defining Research Trends and Fronts. Sci. Tech. Inf. Process. 2020, 47, 221–231. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  19. Li, J.; Goerlandt, F.; Nunen, V.K.; Ponnet, K.; Reniers, G. Conceptualizing the Contextual Dynamics of Safety Climate and Safety Culture Research: A Comparative Scientometric Analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 813. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  20. Zhai, J.C.; Sun, X.; Lu, R.; Hu, X.Q.; Huang, Z.Q. Bibliometric Analysis of Global Trends in Research on Seasonal Variations in Gut Microbiota from 2012 to 2022. Microorganisms 2023, 11, 2125. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  21. Cheng, P.; Tang, H.; Lin, F.F.; Kong, X.S. Bibliometrics of the nexus between food security and carbon emissions: Hotspots and trends. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. Int. 2022, 30, 25981–25998. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  22. Wu, Z.H.; Chen, S.P.; Wang, Y.H.; Li, F.Y.; Xu, H.H.; Li, M.X.; Zeng, Y.J.; Wu, Z.F.; Gao, Y. Current perspectives and trend of computer-aided drug design: A review and bibliometric analysis. Int. J. Surg. 2024, 3, 3848–3878. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  23. Yang, Z.; Hotterbeex, P.; Marent, P.; Cerin, E.; Thomas, M.; Uffelen, V.J. Physical activity, sedentary behavior, and cognitive function among older adults: A bibliometric analysis from 2004 to 2024. Ageing Res. Rev. 2024, 97, 102283. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  24. Chen, A.L.; Luo, Z.Q.; Zhang, J.Q.; Cao, X.H. Emerging research themes in maternal hypothyroidism: A bibliometric exploration. Front. Immunol. 2024, 15, 1370707. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  25. Chen, C.M. CiteSpace II: Detecting and visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Tec. 2006, 57, 359–377. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  26. Chen, C.; Ibekwe-Sanjuan, F.; Hou, J. The Structure and Dynamics of Co-Citation Clusters: A Multiple-Perspective Co-Citation Analysis. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Tec. 2014, 61, 1386–1409. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  27. Garfield, E. The history and meaning of the journal impact factor. Jama 2006, 295, 90–93. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  28. Price, D.J.S. Little Science, Big Science; Columbia University Press: New York, NY, USA, 1963. [Google Scholar]
  29. Cipresso, P.; Giglioli, I.A.C.; Raya, M.A.; Riva, G. The Past, Present, and Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality Research: A Network and Cluster Analysis of the Literature. Front. Psychol. 2018, 9, 2086. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  30. Yan, W.; Zheng, K.; Weng, L.; Chen, C.; Kiartivich, S.; Jiang, X.; Su, X.; Wang, Y.; Wang, X. Bibliometric evaluation of 2000–2019 publications on functional near-infrared spectroscopy. NeuroImage 2020, 220, 117121. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  31. IPCC. Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, 2022. [Google Scholar]
  32. Akhter, A.; Olaf, E. Assessing farmer use of climate change adaptation practices and impacts on food security and poverty in Pakistan. Clim. Risk Manag. 2017, 16, 183–194. [Google Scholar]
  33. Field, C.B.; Barros, V.R.; Dokken, D.J.; Mach, K.J.; Mastrandrea, M.D.; Bilir, T.E. Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects; In Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2014. [Google Scholar]
  34. Cinner, J.E.; Adger, W.N.; Allison, E.H.; Barnes, M.L.; Brown, K.; Cohen, P.J.; Gelcich, S.; Hicks, C.C.; Hughes, T.P.; Lau, J.; et al. Building adaptive capacity to climate change in tropical coastal communities. Nat. Clim. Chang. 2018, 8, 117–123. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  35. Lowder, S.K.; Skoet, J.; Raney, T. The Number, Size, and Distribution of Farms, Smallholder Farms, and Family Farms Worldwide. World Dev. 2016, 87, 16–29. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  36. Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022. Towards Blue Transformation; FAO: Rome, Italy, 2022. [Google Scholar]
  37. Hair, J.F.; Hult, G.T.M.; Ringle, C.M.; Sarstedt, M. A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), 2nd ed.; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2016. [Google Scholar]
  38. Quandt, A. Measuring livelihood resilience: The Household Livelihood Resilience Approach (HLRA). World Dev. 2018, 107, 253–263. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  39. Milad, D.P.; Ali, A.B.; Hossein, A.; Scheffran, J. Revealing the role of livelihood assets in livelihood strategies: Towards enhancing conservation and livelihood development in the Hara Biosphere Reserve, Iran. Ecol. Indic. 2018, 94, 336–347. [Google Scholar]
  40. Bennett, N.J. Using perceptions as evidence to improve conservation and environmental management. Conserv. Biol. 2016, 30, 582–592. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
  41. Sen, A. Famines and Poverty; Oxford University Press: London, UK, 1981. [Google Scholar]
  42. Clark, W.C.; Tomich, T.P.; Meine, V.N.; Guston, D.; Catacutan, D.; Dickson, N.M.; McNie, E. Boundary work for sustainable development: Natural resource management at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGI AR). Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2016, 113, 4615–4622. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
  43. Lin, X.; Zhou, R.; Liang, D.; Xia, L.; Zeng, L.; Chen, X. The role of microbiota in autism spectrum disorder: A bibliometric analysis based on original articles. Front. Psychiatry 2022, 13, 976827. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
Agriculture 14 01153 g001
Figure 1. Distribution of publications on the livelihood strategy of agricultural residents.
Figure 1. Distribution of publications on the livelihood strategy of agricultural residents.
Agriculture 14 01153 g001
Agriculture 14 01153 g002
Figure 2. The visualization map of country analysis. (A) Geographic distributions of countries. (B) Cooperative relationships of countries.
Figure 2. The visualization map of country analysis. (A) Geographic distributions of countries. (B) Cooperative relationships of countries.
Agriculture 14 01153 g002
Agriculture 14 01153 g003
Figure 3. The visualization network map of institutional collaboration.
Figure 3. The visualization network map of institutional collaboration.
Agriculture 14 01153 g003
Agriculture 14 01153 g004
Figure 4. The visualization network map of authors’ collaboration.
Figure 4. The visualization network map of authors’ collaboration.
Agriculture 14 01153 g004
Agriculture 14 01153 g005
Figure 5. The visualization map of the keyword analysis. (A) The co-occurring map of keywords. (B) The top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts. (C) The timeline visualization map of keywords.
Figure 5. The visualization map of the keyword analysis. (A) The co-occurring map of keywords. (B) The top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts. (C) The timeline visualization map of keywords.
Agriculture 14 01153 g005
Agriculture 14 01153 g006
Figure 6. The visualization network map of co-cited journals (A) and references (B).
Figure 6. The visualization network map of co-cited journals (A) and references (B).
Agriculture 14 01153 g006
Table 1. Top 20 most productive countries and institutions.
Table 1. Top 20 most productive countries and institutions.
RankFreqCentralityCountriesFreqCentralityInstitutionsCountries
12610.06UNITED STATES1460.19Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)International
22400.29CHINA630.02Wageningen University & ResearchNETHERLANDS
31680.07UNITED KINGDOM480.07Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)INDIA
41460.04GERMANY410.12Chinese Academy of SciencesCHINA
51440.06INDIA390.02International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)International
61160.03AUSTRALIA310.09University of California SystemUNITED STATES
71110.02NETHERLANDS250.17Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD)FRANCE
8920.09KENYA230.03International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)International
9790.12ETHIOPIA210.3International Maize & Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)International
10690.17SOUTH AFRICA190.01Addis Ababa UniversityETHIOPIA
11670GHANA180.04Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology DomainSWISS
12580.01CANADA180University of Chinese Academy of SciencesCHINA
13520.09INDONESIA170.07University of BonnGERMANY
14500.09VIETNAM160.13International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)International
15470.27FRANCE160.01Institute of Geographic Sciences & Natural Resources ResearchCHINA
16450.1MEXICO160.04Kwame Nkrumah University Science & TechnologyGHANA
17450.07ITALY150.22International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)International
18450.06JAPAN140.1University of LondonUNITED KINGDOM
19440.17TANZANIA130.07ETH ZurichSWISS
20390.24BRAZIL130.06Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)AUSTRALIA
Table 2. Top 20 journals with the highest number of publications.
Table 2. Top 20 journals with the highest number of publications.
RankJournalsPublicationsIF (2023)CategoryQuartile in CategoryCountries
1SUSTAINABILITY1583.9ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESQ2SWITZERLAND
2FRONTIERS IN SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS474.7FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYQ2SWITZERLAND
3AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS366.6AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARYQ1NETHERLANDS
4ENVIRONMENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY314.9ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESQ2NETHERLANDS
5FOREST POLICY AND ECONOMICS244ECONOMICSQ1UNITED STATES
6REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE234.2ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESQ2GERMANY
7HELIYON234MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCESQ2UNITED KINGDOM
8INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH22NAENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESQ2SWITZERLAND
9ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY224.1ECOLOGYQ2CANADA
10INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY213.4AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARYQ1ENGLAND
11FORESTS212.9FORESTRYQ1SWITZERLAND
12FOOD SECURITY216.7FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYQ1NETHERLANDS
13CLIMATIC CHANGE184.8ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESQ2NETHERLANDS
14INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DISASTER RISK REDUCTION175GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARYQ1NETHERLANDS
15AGRICULTURE-BASEL173.6AGRONOMYQ1SWITZERLAND
16PLOS ONE153.7MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCESQ2UNITED STATES
17ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH155.8ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESQ1GERMANY
18AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS152.2AGRONOMYQ2NETHERLANDS
19WATER143.4ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCESQ2SWITZERLAND
20OCEAN & COASTAL MANAGEMENT144.6OCEANOGRAPHYQ1ENGLAND
NA: Not Applicable.
Table 3. Top 10 cited journals related to the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents.
Table 3. Top 10 cited journals related to the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents.
RankFreqJournalsIF (2023)
1553World Development6.9
2460Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions8.9
3425Sustainability3.9
4395Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America11.1
5391Land Use Policy7.1
6383Science56.9
7371Ecological Economics7
8368Agricultural Systems6.6
9365PLoS ONE3.7
10344Ecology and Society4.1
Table 4. Top 10 cited references related to the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents.
Table 4. Top 10 cited references related to the research field of livelihood strategies for agricultural residents.
RankFreqAuthorYearTitleJournal
129IPCC2022Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and VulnerabilityIPCC Sixth Assessment Report
216Lowder, SK2016The Number, Size, and Distribution of Farms, Smallholder Farms, and Family Farms WorldwideWorld Development
315Fisheries and Aquaculture Department (FAO)2022The state of world fisheries and aquaculture 2022. Towards blue transformationRome: FAO
412Ali, A2017Assessing farmer use of climate change adaptation practices and impacts on food security and poverty in PakistanClimate Risk Management
511Pour, MD2018Revealing the role of livelihood assets in livelihood strategies: Towards enhancing conservation and livelihood development in the Hara Biosphere Reserve, IranEcological Indicators
69Field, CB2014Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: global and sectoral aspects. In Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeGeneva, Switzerland: IPCC
79Hair, JF2016A Primer on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) (2 ed.)Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
88Quandt, A2018Measuring livelihood resilience: The Household Livelihood Resilience Approach (HLRA)World Development
97Bennett, NJ2016Using perceptions as evidence to improve conservation and environmental managementConservation Biology
107Cinner, JE2018Building adaptive capacity to climate change in tropical coastal communitiesNature Climate Change
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Zhai, J.; Sun, X.; Hu, X.; Tian, J.; Huang, Z. Evolutionary Trends and Hotspot Analysis of Livelihood Strategy for Agricultural Residents Based on Bibliometrics. Agriculture 2024, 14, 1153. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14071153

AMA Style

Zhai J, Sun X, Hu X, Tian J, Huang Z. Evolutionary Trends and Hotspot Analysis of Livelihood Strategy for Agricultural Residents Based on Bibliometrics. Agriculture. 2024; 14(7):1153. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14071153

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhai, Jiancheng, Xiao Sun, Xueqin Hu, Jun Tian, and Zhiqiang Huang. 2024. "Evolutionary Trends and Hotspot Analysis of Livelihood Strategy for Agricultural Residents Based on Bibliometrics" Agriculture 14, no. 7: 1153. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14071153

APA Style

Zhai, J., Sun, X., Hu, X., Tian, J., & Huang, Z. (2024). Evolutionary Trends and Hotspot Analysis of Livelihood Strategy for Agricultural Residents Based on Bibliometrics. Agriculture, 14(7), 1153. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture14071153

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Back to TopTop