Ethnic Minority Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Its Effects on Crop Production in Northwest Vietnam: A Case Study of H’mong Farmers in Pa Lau Commune, Tram Tau District, Yen Bai Province

Date Received: Feb 09, 2023

Date Published: Jun 30, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31817/vjas.2023.6.2.05

Views

753

Download

230

Issue: Vol. 6 No. 2 (2023): Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences

Section:

NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

How to Cite:

Yen, N., Bang, T., Luyen, P., Tu, G., & Vien, T. (2023). Ethnic Minority Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Its Effects on Crop Production in Northwest Vietnam: A Case Study of H’mong Farmers in Pa Lau Commune, Tram Tau District, Yen Bai Province. Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 6(2), 1797–1809. https://doi.org/10.31817/vjas.2023.6.2.05

Ethnic Minority Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change and Its Effects on Crop Production in Northwest Vietnam: A Case Study of H’mong Farmers in Pa Lau Commune, Tram Tau District, Yen Bai Province

Nguyen Thi Bich Yen (*) 1 , Tran Nguyen Bang 1 , Pham Thi Hai Luyen 1 , Giang A Tu 1   , Tran Duc Vien 1

  • Corresponding author: ntbyen@vnua.edu.vn
  • 1 Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi 131000, Vietnam

    • Keywords

    Climate change perception, climate change impacts, adaptation

    Abstract


    This study aimed to assess the perception of H'mong farmers in the northwest mountainous region on climate change, its impacts on crop production, and their adaptation strategies. Reports on natural disaster events and their damages for the period ranging from 2012-2021, together with meteorological data including daily temperature and precipitation for 1991-2021, were collected. Fifty households among the H’mong farmers were randomly selected from four villages of Pa Lau commune for interviews based on structured questionnaires. The results showed that most H’mong farmers know that the climate is changing. However, their perceptions of the trends of these changes in terms of rainfall, temperature, and extreme weather events were not consistent with the analysis of meteorological data. The results also revealed that this is because the farmers evaluated the changes mainly based on their observations of short-term climate changes and the associated impacts that directly affect their livelihoods. The farmers perceived that soil erosion and hot and extreme cold weather have tended to increase their impacts on the production of some major local crops. Other types of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, landslides, pests, and strong winds have tended to have more or less impacts depending on the crop type. Adaptation measures taken by farmers to mitigate the effects of climate change are mainly simple, flexible, seasonal and low-cost measures. This study provides basic information for authorities at all levels to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.

    References

    Asrat P. & Simane B. (2018). Farmers’ perception of climate change and adaptation strategies in the Dabus watershed, North-West Ethiopia. Ecological Processes. 7(1): 7.

    Bien V., Tien H., Son N., Vinh B., Quan N., Hanh D., Khanh P. & Phuong T. (2022). Climate Change and Farmers’ Adaptation Strategies: The Case of Rice Producers in Nghe An Province, Vietnam. Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences. 5(1): 1359-1374.

    Chhogyel N., Kumar L., Bajgai Y. & Hasan M. K. (2020). Perception of farmers on climate change and its impacts on agriculture across various altitudinal zones of Bhutan Himalayas. International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology. 17(8): 3607-3620.

    Deressa T. T., Hassan R. M. & Ringler C. (2010). Perception of and adaptation to climate change by farmers in the Nile basin of Ethiopia. The Journal of Agricultural Science. 149(1): 23-31.

    Eckstein D., Künzel V., Schäfer L. & Winges M. (2020). Global climate risk index 2020: Who Suffers Most from Extreme Weather Events? Weather-Related Loss Events in 2018 and 1999 to 2018 Germanwatch.

    Esayas B., Simane B., Teferi E., Ongoma V. & Tefera N. (2019). Climate Variability and Farmers’ Perception in Southern Ethiopia. Advances in Meteorology. 2019: 7341465.

    Fierros-González I. & López-Feldman A. (2021). Farmers’ Perception of Climate Change: A Review of the Literature for Latin America. Frontiers in Environmental Science. 9:672399. DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2021.672399

    Huong N. T. L., Yao S. & Fahad S. (2019). Assessing household livelihood vulnerability to climate change: The case of Northwest Vietnam. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal. 25(5): 1157-1175.

    Kang Y., Khan S. & Ma X. (2009). Climate change impacts on crop yield, crop water productivity and food security – A review. Progress in Natural Science. 19(12): 1665-1674.

    Karki S., Burton P. & Mackey B. (2020). The experiences and perceptions of farmers about the impacts of climate change and variability on crop production: a review. Climate and Development. 12(1): 80-95.

    Kendall M. (1975). Rank Correlation Methods. Charles Griffin. London, UK.

    Le M.-H., Kim H., Moon H., Zhang R., Lakshmi V. & Nguyen L.-B. (2020). Assessment of drought conditions over Vietnam using standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index, MERRA-2 re-analysis, and dynamic land cover. Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies. 32: 100767.

    Mann H. B. (1945). Nonparametric Tests Against Trend. Econometrica. 13(3): 245-259.

    MONRE (2022). Climate change scenario updated version in 2020 [Online]. Retrieved from http://vnmha.gov.vn/tin-tuc-bdkh-112/kich-ban-bien-doi-khi-hau-phien-ban-cap-nhat-nam-2020-11405.html on (February 5, 2023) (in Vietnamese).

    Nguyen C. T. & Scrimgeour F. (2022). Measuring the impact of climate change on agriculture in Vietnam: A panel Ricardian analysis. Agricultural Economics. 53(1): 37-51.

    Phuong D. N. D., Dat N. L. T. & Loi N. K. (2022). Multiple trend tests on air temperature and precipitation anomalies in Vietnam. Journal of Water and Climate Change. 13(3): 1340-1353.

    Sen L. T. H., Bond J., Phuong L. T. H., Winkel A., Tran U. C. & Le N. V. (2021). The importance of climate change awareness for the adaptive capacity of ethnic minority farmers in the mountainous areas of Thua Thien Hue province. Local Environment. 26(2): 239-251.

    Sen P. K. (1968). Estimates of the Regression Coefficient Based on Kendall’s Tau. Journal of the American Statistical Association. 63: 1379-1389.

    Shrestha R., Rakhal B., Adhikari T. R., Ghimire G. R., Talchabhadel R., Tamang D., Kc R. & Sharma S. (2022). Farmers’ Perception of Climate Change and Its Impacts on Agriculture. Hydrology 9(12):212. DOI: 10.3390/hydrology9120212.

    Son Tran V., William B., Peter S. & Trinh Mai V. (2015). Perception of Climate Change and Farmers’ Adaptation: A Case Study of Poor and Non-Poor Farmers in Northern Central Coast of Vietnam. Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. 11: 323-342.

    Salmi T., Määttä A., Pia A., Tuija R.-A. & Amnell T. (2002). Detecting Trends of Annual Values of Atmospheric Pollutants by the Mann-Kendall Test and Sen's Solpe Estimates the Excel Template Application MAKESENS. (31). Finnish Meteorological Institute. Helsinki. 35 pages.

    Theil H. (1992). A Rank-Invariant Method of Linear and Polynomial Regression Analysis. In: Henri Theil’s Contributions to Economics and Econometrics: Econometric Theory and Methodology. Raj, B. & Koerts, J. (Eds.). Springer Netherlands Dordrecht: 345-381.

    Huong N. T. L., Shun Bo Y. & Fahad S. (2017). Farmers’ perception, awareness and adaptation to climate change: evidence from northwest Vietnam. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management. 9(4): 555-576.

    Thuy L. T., Nguyen H. Q., Simioni M., Hoa P., Arai H., Mermoz S., Bouvet A., de Eccher I., Diallo Y, Trinh H. D., Vo D. S., Lam D. N., Woillez M.-N. & Espagne E. (2021). Agriculture in Viet Nam under the impact of climate change [Online]. hal-03456472f. Retrieved from https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03456472/file/2021_Simioni_Rapport_AFD_Climate%20change_GEMMES-pages-191-228.pdf on February 3, 2023.

    Trinh T.-A., Feeny S. & Posso A. (2021). Chapter 17 - The Impact of Natural Disasters and Climate Change on Agriculture: Findings From Vietnam. In: Chaiechi T. (Ed.). Economic Effects of Natural Disasters. Academic Press: 261-280.

    Trinh T. A. (2018). The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture: Findings from Households in Vietnam. Environmental and Resource Economics. 71(4): 897-921.

    Vien T. D. (2013). Climate Change and Its Impact on Agriculture in Vietnam. Journal of ISSAAS (The International Society for Southeast Asian Agricultural Sciences). 17(1): 17-21.

    Yen N. T. B., Kamoshita A., Dinh V. T. H., Matsuda H. & Kurokura H. (2017). Salinity intrusion and rice production in Red River Delta under changing climate conditions. Paddy and Water Environment. 15(1): 37-48.

    Yen N. T. B. & Leisz S. J. (2021). Determinants of livelihood vulnerability to climate change: Two minority ethnic communities in the northwest mountainous region of Vietnam. Environmental Science and Policy. 123: 11-20.