THE INFLUENCE OF HOUSEHOLD ASSETS AND COMMUNITY ASSETS ON RICE FARMERS’ ADAPTATION DECISIONS TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN VIET NAM
Open Access
- Author:
- Dang, Chi Kim
- Graduate Program:
- Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Economics
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- October 28, 2016
- Committee Members:
- David Abler, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Edward C Jaenicke, Committee Member
Terry Harrison, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Climate change
saline intrusion
adaptive measures
multinomial logit model
Vietnam - Abstract:
- Agriculture, a main sector of Vietnam’s economy, has been faced with sea level rise, climate variability and shortage of fresh water resources. Barriers to adaptation to climate change in the agricultural sector have been of interest to many researchers. This study is one empirical research that aims to identify five capital assets -human capital, physical capital, natural capital, financial capital and social capital- at both the household level and the local level that can shape rice farmers’ adaptive capacity and influence their decisions to take adaptive measures. The adaptive strategies used by rice farmers to adapt to climate change in the Mekong River Delta and the South Central Coast of Vietnam are categorized into two groups: engineering measures and non-engineering measures. The results from the multinomial logistic regression model employed show that the indicators of the five capital assets- farming experience of the household head, possession of at least one irrigation machine, land types, downstream location of the village, number of people providing financial loans to the household in case of emergency, in-kind support from organizations or agencies, population density of the village- all significantly influence farmers’ adaptive choices. Given limited capital assets at both household and community levels, this study recommends what types of adaptive measures rice farmers can apply to reduce the impacts of droughts, saline intrusion and alluvial deposition. The findings of this study have important implications for the establishment of policy responses to climate change and the implementation of climate change adaptation programs at the local and national levels.