Researchers have long pointed out that rural people are particularly vulnerable to climate change, especially in the case of extreme weather events such as droughts and hailstorms (Tol 1995; IPCC 2007).
In the dry regions of western China such as Ningxia, a reduction in rainfall and an increase in the incidence of drought in recent years have been shown to affect local farming activities and farmer income (Ju et al. 2008).