Overview
Understanding farmers’ adaptation strategies and decision-making processes is important for designing future policy interventions to ameliorate and prevent the adverse effects of extreme weather events on farming systems. This technical report presents the findings of an ACIAR project that examined the effects and potential benefits of responses to climate change in rice markets in China and Vietnam. The project provided a social sciences dimension to the study of climate change and its primary objectives were to identify those farmers most at risk from climate change and then to identify policy responses to assist their adaptation and adjustment.
The research found that some farmers were responding to climate change mostly by adopting changes in farm management practices, and that the incentive for farmers to act was influenced by the policy environment, the institutional environment and investment by governments. Because planned and institutional measures are in the hands of various levels of government, the research reinforced the importance of coordination to develop a cohesive package of measures for farmers to address climate change at the farm level.
