Revisiting the effects of climate-smart agriculture: A case of Vietnamese rice farmers

Abstract

With the growing concern on agricultural production over the threat posed by climate change, farmers’ adaptation has been regarded as one of the most important measures to sustain agricultural productivity and food security. To support the farm-level adaptation, comprehensive and context-specific knowledge of adaptation strategies is necessary. Using household data from Central Vietnam (CVN) and Red River Delta (RRD), two key rice production regions in Vietnam, we investigate the effectiveness of popularly adopted farm adaptation strategies: use of stress-tolerant varieties, improved cropping system, and pest and disease management techniques. Employing a two-stage residual inclusion estimation approach, we estimate the impacts of adopting these adaptation strategies on both rice productivity and the downside risk of rice production. Our results suggest that the first two strategies increase rice productivity, while the third strategy reduces downside risk. We also find heterogeneous linkage effects of these strategies among regions (CVN vs. RRD) and seasons (Wet vs. Dry season). Moreover, we further investigate the determinants of the adaptation decisions and find that farmers' perceptions of different climate stresses affect different adaptation strategies. Overall, these results underscore the importance of providing context-specific extension services to support the adoption of effective adaptation strategies.