Farmers have a long history of adapting to changing conditions, including changing climate, towards more sustainable agricultural production. In this study, we construct a unique long-duration pseudo-panel dataset from nationally representative households in Vietnam to investigate factors behind farmer's choices to adopt soil and water conservation techniques to adapt to climatic change. Since farmers' adoption decisions are inherently dynamic, a dynamic probit model was estimated. We find that weather shocks and long-run changes in tem-perature are significant determinants of farmers' choices. The decision to make new investments in adaptation practices in subsequent periods is confirmed to be strongly influenced by the past adoption decision. Farmer's experience, farm size, and access to weather and output price information are also associated with households that apply conservation measures. These findings suggest that policies aiming at promoting climate-resilient strategies should pay attention to farmers' adaptation behavior and the persistence of choices in farmers' decision-making processes. Policies should target improving farmers' access to information with a special focus on market-and weather-related information to enhance farmers' adaptive capacity to better cope with ongoing climatic uncertainty.
Duc, KN; Ancev, T; Randall, A
Farmers' choices of climate-resilient strategies: Evidence from Vietnam
Journal Of Cleaner Production