Perception of and adaptation practices to climate change: a case study of smallholder paddy farmers in Dai Loc district of Vietnam

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate the smallholder paddy farmers’ perceptions of climate change and identify factors that affect their perceptions of it in Vietnam. A sample size of 260 was chosen from a total of 745 smallholder paddy farmers and a structured questionnaire was constructed to gather data. Descriptive, chi-square (χ2) and logistic regression analyses were used. The research results revealed that the socio-economic characteristics of smallholder paddy farmers vary, reflecting diverse paddy-farming systems in the study area. A large number of smallholder paddy farmers noticed temperature, drought and pest/disease increased, whereas rainfall and flood decreased over the past 20 years. A high proportion of smallholders reported that more irrigation for paddy rice (82.7%), followed by growing short duration rice (65.0%) and changing paddy rice planting and harvesting date (63.1%) are the main adaptation practices. A majority of smallholders indicated that lack of information about potential climate change (67.7%), followed by lack of knowledge concerning appropriate adaptation (66.2%) and lack of market access and storage facility (64.2%) are the key barriers to adaptation practices. The success of the regression model’s overall prediction is reported by model χ2 = 81.5, p < 0.000, indicating that the explanatory variables significantly explained the dependent variable. Among the explanatory variables, agricultural practice, information and communication technology possessed, participation in rural credit programmes, participation in technical training programmes, participation in community-based organisations, gender, age, level of education, size of farm and farming experiences are significantly important determinants of smallholders’ perception of climate change.