Survey data on livelihood assets, activities and outcomes of smallholder farm households in China’s Loess Plateau

This data article provides a selection of quantitative data from a questionnaire survey on livelihood assets, activities and outcomes of smallholder farm households in Yan’he Township which lies in the middle part of China’s Loess Plateau, one of the representative Grain for Green Project (GGP) areas[1]. Data include land-use decisions and agronomic practices, fertilization, use of pesticides, machine and irrigation, farm and nonfarm activities, financial performance as well as the levels of household income, wellness, and total consumption of food, energy, education and health care. The survey also covered geographical, demographic and socioeconomic background information on the respondents and their perceptions, incentives, propensities and subjective wellbeing. The survey has supported a couple of research articles that build indicators and indexes for economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability dimensions and the resilience building of coupled social-ecological systems (SES).