12/26/24, 1:13 PM Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agricultural production in the central region of Vietnam - ScienceDirect

Land Use Policy

Volume 70, January 2018, Pages 224-231

Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to

climate change in agricultural production in
the central region of Vietnam
Thoai Quang Trinh a , Roberto F. Rañola Jr. b, Leni D. Camacho c, Elisabeth Simelton d

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Abstract

This paper discusses the likely changes in farm cultural practices that farmers would adopt
to minimize agricultural production losses as a response to the increasing occurrence of
extreme weather conditions due to climate change in the Central Region of Viet Nam. Using
binary logit model and multivariate probit model, this paper examined different factors
influencing farmers decision on adaptation to climate change in their agricultural
production. Training attendance, farm size, damage level, educational level, farming
experience, access to credit, and gender were the factors that influenced significantly the
probability that farmers would adapt to climate change. Of these factors, attendance in
climate change training and farm size were the most important factors affecting the farmers
decision on adaptation to climate change, while labor availability and membership in local
organizations were not. Three policy recommendations were proposed to enhance small-
scale farmers adaptive capacity to climate change in the region. These include: i).
broadening of training courses on climate change; ii). institute policies that would promote

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12/26/24, 1:13 PM Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agricultural production in the central region of Vietnam - ScienceDirect

consolidation of farmlands; and, iii). integrate concepts of climate change and climate
change adaptation into the operation of the local organizations.

Introduction

Climate change has become a threat to human society (Ramirez-villegas et al., 2012, Kibue
et al., 2015), particularly in developing countries where smallholder farmers are greatly
affected and are becoming increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events caused by
climate change (Lotze-Campen and Schellnhuber, 2009, Esham and Garforth, 2013, Altieri
and Nicholls, 2017, Comoé and Siegrist, 2015). Thus, adaptation to climate change is now
gaining wide recognition and is a focal concern around the world (Smit and Skinner, 2002,
Wilbanks et al., 2007, Thornton and Comberti, 2013). However, developing countries have
lower adaptive capacity and do not have the essential technology for adaptation to climate
change (Lotze-Campen and Schellnhuber, 2009).

Agriculture as the major sustainable source of food is highly dependent on and strongly
affected by weather and extreme climatic events (Mjelde et al., 1989, Das, 2005, Motha and
Murthy, 2007, Sivakumar, 2011, CIE, 2014). In recent decades, climate change has adversely
affected crop production and yields in important agricultural regions of the world (Almaraz
et al., 2008, Reidsma et al., 2009). In addition, the adverse impacts of climate change on
agricultural production has led to high poverty incidence (Mendelsohn et al., 2006) and
food insecurity in the world (Das, 2005, Rosenzweig and Tubiello, 2007, Nelson et al., 2009,
Misra, 2012, Connoly-Boutin and Smit, 2015). However, few smallholder farmers have
enough resources or capacity to adapt to climate variability and change (Verchot et al., 2007,
Nyamadzawo et al., 2013). Thus, most countries in the world have increasingly considered
improving farmers’ adaptive capacity to climate change in agriculture to ensure food
security and secure livelihood of smallholder farmers (Smit and Skinner, 2002, Verchot et
al., 2007, Nelson et al., 2009, Kibue et al., 2015).

Agriculture is an important sector for Vietnam since it accounts for one-fifth of the GDP,
employs nearly half of the country’s labor force (GFDRR, 2011), and provides an income
source for three-quarters of the population of the country (Cooke and Toda, 2008, Shrestha
et al., 2014). Thus, the Vietnamese Government has intensified its efforts to reduce
vulnerability and improve its adaptive capacity in addressing the impacts of climate change
in agricultural production (Trinh et al., 2013, Schmidt-Thomé et al., 2015). Furthermore,
farmers have initiated a number of autonomous and planned adaptive practices, such as
changes in sowing dates, switching to drought-tolerant crops, changing crop varieties (e.g.,
salinity-tolerant varieties of rice), and switching to rice-fish rotations (World Bank, 2010).

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12/26/24, 1:13 PM Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agricultural production in the central region of Vietnam - ScienceDirect

However, farmers in Vietnam still have limited understanding of the importance of climate
change adaptation to their livelihoods (Le et al., 2014a).

The Central Region of Vietnam has been highly vulnerable to extreme weather events such
as flood, typhoon and drought (Boateng, 2012). In addition, the frequent occurrence of
extreme weather events serves as a challenge to agricultural production in the region
(ISPONRE, 2009, Bruun and Casse, 2013). Given the importance of this issue, several studies
were undertaken in an attempt to determine the impacts of climate change on agricultural
production and describe farmers adaptive practices to climate change in the region.
Shrestha et al. (2014) analyzed the impacts of climate change on winter and summer paddy
yield, and evaluated several adaptive practices to climate change in the central region. The
results of this study indicated that the plausible adaptive strategies for rice cultivation in the
region include changing planting dates, supplementary irrigation, proper nutrient
management and switching to new rice varieties. Shrestha and Bui (2015) listed some
adaptive practices of farmers in the region as a response to climate change such as altering
transplanting dates and introducing supplementary irrigation. Tran et al. (2015) compared
the adaptation behavior between poor and non-poor farmers of the central region and
concluded that non-poor farmers were more likely to adopt more sophisticated responses
compared to the poor farmers.

An understanding of the factors affecting farmers decision in applying a particular adaptive

practice among the available strategies may provide a very basis for formulating policy
recommendations that would be responsive to climatic changes (Piya et al., 2013). However,
despite the high occurrence of climate-induced agriculture risks, no studies have identified
the factors affecting farmers adaptive choices in their agricultural production under
changed climate condition in the Central Region of Vietnam. Hence, the purpose of this
paper is to examine if, and how the factors that relate to household’s livelihood assets
influence farmers adaptive strategies for climate change in the region.

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Section snippets

The study site and method of data collection

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12/26/24, 1:13 PM Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agricultural production in the central region of Vietnam - ScienceDirect

This study was conducted as part of a project on climate-smart agriculture and climate
services, in Ky Son commune, Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province in the northcentral Vietnam
(Fig. 1). The study site included My Loi village, one of the first CCAFS climate-smart villages
in Southeast Asia. The commune was chosen as the study area due to its exposure to
multiple extreme weather events such as temperature and water stress, flood, storm and
typhoon (Le et al., 2014b).

This paper used both primary …

Impacts of climate change on agricultural production

Climate change has caused the higher frequency and intensity of extreme weather events in
the Ha Tinh province (Ha Tinh Provincial People’s Committee, 2014). Moreover, the
frequency and the strength of these climate stresses are likely to be more serious in the
context of climate change in the province (ISPONRE, 2009). Droughts, floods, cold spells and
typhoon occur annually in the province, with drought occurring most frequently. Annually,
the drought period in the region starts in April and …

Discussion

The study findings indicated that monitoring weather forecasts, changing crop varieties,
adjusting farming calendar, switching to new cultivar types, and intercropping are major
adaptive strategies applied by farmers in the study site. These findings are very similar to
the findings of Nhemachena and Hassan (2007) and Kibue et al. (2016) on how farmers in
some African countries and China adapted to climate change. Among adaptive practices
used by farmers in the study site, changing crop …

Conclusion and policy recommendations

This paper described farmers adaptive practices and determined factors influencing farmers
adaptation to climate change in the Central Region of Vietnam. The results showed that
farmers were losing 20% of their annual income from agricultural production due to the
extreme weather events caused by climate change. In an effort to mitigate these losses,
farmers in the region adopted different adaptive strategies such as changing crop varieties,
switching to new crop types, adjusting farming …

Acknowledgments

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12/26/24, 1:13 PM Determinants of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in agricultural production in the central region of Vietnam - ScienceDirect

The first author is very grateful to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD),
Germany and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in
Agriculture (SEARCA) for providing financial support to this study. This work was
implemented as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and
Food Security (CCAFS), which is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors and
through bilateral funding agreements. For detail, please visit //ccafs.cgiar.org/donors …

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