Climate change as expressed by erratic rainfall, increased flooding, extended droughts, frequency tropical cyclones or saline water intrusion, poses severe threats to smallholder farmers in Vietnam. Adaptation of the agricultural sector is vital to increase the resilience of smallholder farmers' livelihoods in times of climate change. To complement efforts already implemented by farmers to reduce social vulnerability it is important to understand how farmers perceive their current and future capacity to adapt to climate change. This paper aims to explore smallholder farmers' capacity to respond to climate change in current and future agricultural production. We carried out open, in-depth interviews (n = 13), focus group discussions, and structured interviews (n = 114) in the Thua Thien Hue province. Our findings show that farmers nowadays experience more extreme climate variability. Farmers report increasing stresses due to temperature increase and droughts. The autonomous adaptation strategies adopted by farmers include; adjusting the season calendar, using tolerant varieties and breeds, applying integrated crop production models, and income diversification. The motives for adopting particular planned adaptation options differ between farmers in crop production and livestock production. Four factors were found to be significant (p < .05) in influencing the spread of adaptation measures (AMs) farmers adopted: farm income, the number of available information sources, number of workers on the farm, and farmable land available during the summer season. Farmers report several barriers to implement adaptation strategies including; market price fluctuations, lack of skilled labour, lack of climate change information, and lack of capacity to learn and apply techniques in their daily practice. While both crop and livestock farmers participated in one or several training courses on climate change in the past years, livestock farmers were still uncertain about their future capacity and possible AMs.

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Changing climate patterns and increases in climate extremes pose new challenges to livelihoods of ethnic communities in the upland area in Thừa Thiên-Huế (TTH) province. Unpredictability and extreme events have had adverse effects on both farming and income of many ethnic minority households who are already more likely to be vulnerable due to socio-economic and cultural marginalization. Promoting household resilience to climate extremes has emerged as a key development priority for those living in this area. Using data from a household survey conducted in two upland districts of TTH province (Nam Đông and A Lưới), this study employed FAO's resilience framework to measure household climate change resilience of different ethnic groups and a Poison regression model to identify determinants of household adaptation. Results showed that ethnic minority households had relatively low resilience to climate change and variability with the resilience index only 0.428. Due to geographic isolation, agriculture-dependent ethnic minority households in A Lưới were least resilient to climate change. Results suggest that interventions aimed at promoting climate resilience for ethnic minority households should focus on increasing people's knowledge of climate change and associated impacts and risks; and improving household income, savings and strengthen household asset base. Almost all households in the study areas have adopted adaptation measures, such as adjusting the seasonal calendar for crop production; using local crop varieties; practicing mixed cropping; and mulching. Education level, climate change awareness and risk perception of the household head, household income source and ability to access credit were key elements of households' choice of adaptation strategies.

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Background and objectives: Smallholder households with a plot size of 1–5 ha manage nearly half of Vietnam’s acacia plantations. They mostly harvest acacia timber after short rotation periods (5–6 years) producing woodchips with relatively low financial returns compared to potential profits from sawlog production through long rotation periods. The domestic wood production cannot yet meet the needs of the booming furniture industry for raw materials. This paper investigates factors that influence the adoption of long-rotation periods for sawlog production by small-scale plantation owners. Materials and methods: The impact of farmer and farm characteristics and the characteristics of the external environment on the probability to adopt long rotation periods is analyzed. The data were collected through focus group discussions (FGD) and a household survey to capture the wider socio-economic situation of small-scale plantation owners in central Vietnam. Findings: Results from FGDs and probit regressions show that factors that potentially constrain small-scale plantation owners from the production of sawlogs can be grouped into four themes: (1) small and fragmented land holdings, (2) high risks related to natural disasters and other biotic and abiotic hazards, (3) high production and monitoring costs, and (4) lack of knowledge and experience in plantation management. Conclusions: Potential policy approaches to promote the adoption of long rotation periods should include a package of measures that simultaneously address the constraints of smallholders and the various risks that they face.