Resilience of various innovative water management practices: The case of rice production in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta floodplains

Abstract

The floodplains play an important role in agricultural development and rural livelihoods in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. As an intensive rice production area of Vietnam, the floodplain has experienced significant changes in water management regime during the recent decades. Depending on specific locations and irrigation infrastructure investments, four main water management practices have been innovated, particularly a planting season of two crops per year (2C1Y), three crops per year (3C1Y), three years eight crops (3Y8C) and two years five crops (2Y5C). The 4R framework (Reform, Result, Resilience, and Return) was developed based on grounded theory approach for resilience assessment of various innovative water management practices. In terms of resilience, we found that each crop pattern involves pros and cons, and the intensive crop practices are less resilient systems, especially in social, environmental, and ecological aspects. The findings provide good lessons learned not only for Vietnam but also for the other rice-producing deltas implementing ecosystem resilience to adapt to global challenges such as flood, drought, and salinity intrusion.