Farming household adoption of climate-smart agricultural technologies: evidence from North-Central Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam recently introduced a policy to promote climate-smart agricultural technologies (CSATs) to enhance farmer resilience and adaptation to climate change. This study sought to identify factors influencing the adoption and the continuation of CSATs adoption among smallholder farmers. The study surveyed 215 farmers in My Loi Village, Ha Tinh Province in North-Central Vietnam, where CSATs have been adopted and practiced since 2014. Logistic and ordinary least square regression models were applied to analyze the data. The results showed that attendance to training on CSATs, presence of a fellow farmer as a source of information, rice cultivation, farming experience and number of crops grown significantly influenced the adoption of CSATs. Farmer adoptions of CSATs, in contrast, were negatively influenced by more working men in the family and membership in a farming organization. The continuous adoption of CSATs was promoted by training, support from agriculture extension officers, upward mobility of farmers, farm ownership and the number of crops grown. Meanwhile, families with a larger number of male workers were less likely to continuously adopt CSATs. Policy-related recommendations were proposed to encourage farmers to adopt CSATs in the region. They included: (i) raising public awareness on CSATs through provision of high-quality information and training; (ii) enhancing technical assistance through the agricultural extension staff to all farmers, especially women; (iii) considering local context and smallholder farmer socioeconomic factors when developing climate-smart actions and programs.