PurposeThe Vietnamese Mekong River Delta (VMD) is one of the most affected deltas by climate change in the world. Several studies have investigated factors influencing farmers' climate change adaptation behaviors in the region; however, little is known about the effectiveness of such measures. This paper examines the determinants of adaptation strategies among VMD rice farmers and assesses the impacts of such practices on rice yield.Design/methodology/approachEndogenous switching regressions were employed using a survey data of 300 rice-producing households in An Giang and Tra Vinh provinces in 2016.FindingsThe results show that farmers receiving early disaster warnings are more likely to adopt adaptation measures to climate change. If nonadaptors had chosen to respond, their rice yield would have increased by 0.932 tons/ha/season.Research limitations/implicationsThe data sample is small and collected from two provinces in the VMD only; therefore, the results may be specific for the study sites. However, future research can adopt the proposed method for other regions.Originality/valueThe study estimates the production impacts of farmers' decisions on whether or not to adapt to extreme climate events. The proposed approach allows for capturing both observed and unobserved behaviors.

Climate smart agriculture (CSA) has gained considerable attention in Vietnam due to its potential to increase food security and farming system resilience while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, several CSA practices have been introduced in rice production, the most important sub-sector of Vietnam’s agriculture. However, few studies have been done in Vietnam to produce comprehensive assessments of CSA performance in the rice sector. This research proposes a comprehensive approach to assess CSA practices through a new set of evaluation indicators. A case study in An Giang province of the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta was implemented to evaluate the performance of five CSA models versus that of the triple rice crop system (i.e., benchmarking model). Results show that rice-shrimp and rice-lotus rotations are most profitable, low-risk, and applicable at a larger scale. Given that the current study analyzed and calculated only a small number of indicators and types of CSA practices, further research is necessary to test all indicators and diversified types of CSA models.