Determinants of adoption of climate-smart agriculture technologies in rice production in Vietnam

Purpose In recent years, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) was introduced to Vietnam to enhance farmers' resilience and adaptation to climate change. Among the climate-smart agricultural technologies (CSATs) introduced were water-saving techniques and improved stress tolerant varieties. This study aims to examine the determinants of farmers' adoption of these technologies and the effects of their adoption on net rice income (NRI) in three provinces as follows: Thai Binh (North), Ha Tinh (Central) and Bac Lieu (South). Design/methodology/approach Determinants of adoption of CSATs and the adoption effects on NRI are analyzed by using a multinomial endogenous switching regression framework. Findings The results showed that gender, age, number of family workers, climate-related factors, farm characteristics, distance to markets, access to climate information, confidence on the know-how of extension workers, membership in social/agricultural groups and attitude toward risk were the major factors affecting the decision to adopt CSATs. However, the effects of these factors on the adoption of CSATs varied across three provinces. These technologies when adopted tend to increase NRI but the increase is much greater when these are combined. Originality/value This study is the first attempt to identify key determinants of adoption of CSATs either singly or in combination and the adoption effects on NRI in Vietnam.