Climate change threatens to magnify existing climate threats, as well as bring new threats to the countries of the lower Mekong River basin. The expected changes in climate would impact on many systems and sectors of these countries, which include Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Thailand, and Vietnam. Impacts on rain-fed agriculture are a particular concern because farm livelihoods that are based on cultivation of rain-fed crops are highly vulnerable to climate stresses (Chinvanno et al., 2006) and rain-fed agriculture is the dominant economic activity of the region, engaging a high proportion of the population (Schiller et al., 2001; UN-ESCAP, 2006).
Climate risks are not new to farmers of the lower Mekong. Important climate risks that are common to farmers of the region include midseason dry spells that can damage young plants and late-season floods just before harvest that can cause severe crop loss. Farmers have developed and used various measures to cope with these and other climate risks. Rice farmers’ experiences with measures to manage climate risks and their perspectives on the potential for applying the same measures to adapt to climate change, are investigated through interviews and focus group discussions conducted in selected farming villages in Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam. Although the climate hazards are similar for rice farmers across the study areas, significant differences are found in the measures used to cope with climate risks in the different villages. These differences in risk management practice arise from local and national differences in social, cultural, economic, and environmental conditions and policies, and suggest that effective strategies for adapting to climate change need to be attuned to the specific context of a place and time.
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