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Climate change adaptations of Vietnamese robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) farmers : analysis of potential strategies

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_projects/b8515x27d

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  • Vietnam is considered one of the most climate change-vulnerable countries due to its high dependence on agriculture and its coastal location. Increased atmospheric temperatures caused by climate change also significantly threaten one of Vietnam's most important cash crops, robusta coffee (Coffea canephora). Suitable cultivation sites of robusta, which comprises 97% of Vietnam's coffee industry, will be eliminated by 2050 (Bunn et al., 2015) under RCP 6.0 if status quo management is maintained. The typical current management of Vietnamese coffee farms has also led to significant land degradation, reducing yields and the industry's long-term sustainability. To ensure that coffee remains a viable crop in Vietnam in the future, farmers and, indeed, all industry stakeholders will need to increase efforts to adopt adaptation techniques to counter anticipated climate change and existing environmental degradation. Although multiple adaptation strategies exist for farmers, it is proposed that they maintain their existing sites and adopt agroforestry methods that can moderate farm microclimates to reduce loss of cultivation suitability (option 4, Table 8). Coffee agroforestry is an accessible, biotic, and low technological adaptation system that reduces air temperatures and increases available water resources by introducing woody perennial support plants. The system also provides additional ecosystem services that benefit the environment and farmers while diversifying farmer crops, livelihoods, and their capacity to respond to future environmental and biological shocks. Vietnamese coffee farmers' knowledge and understanding of agroforestry systems is low, representing one barrier to entry. Additionally, farmers are hesitant to adopt agroforestry systems because of low financial resources and delayed profit returns. Therefore, more support and a multi-pronged approach from the Government of Vietnam (GOV), academia, NGOs, and the private sector will be needed to increase farmer adoption of agroforestry. If the hurdles to farmer adoption can be lowered and overcome, agroforestry represents a feasible and appealing potential adaptation strategy that can offset the anticipated losses to robusta cultivation suitability from anticipated future climate change and existing mismanagement of farms.

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