Summary in English

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Material and methods

Both primary and secondary data were considered in the study. The primary data were collected by using key informal interviews, focus group discussions, and face to face interviews with 405 farmers through the structured questionnaire in An Binh, An Thinh, and Dai Son commune, Van Yen district. The secondary data, including monthly temperature and rainfall information, were gathered from the National Hydrometeorological Center. The data collected from 405 sample households were entered into a computer using MS – Excel by encoding into numeric structures.

The inputted data, after that, were strictly examined again to check whether the existence of erroneous values occurred due to data entering mistakes by using Data Analysis and Statistical Software (STATA) version 14. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis are three critical analyses in the research. The descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage were used to present an overview of field study findings in terms of household´s resource conditions (human capital, natural capital, physical capital, financial capital, and social capital), farmers perception to changes in climate and their adaptations to flash floods and landslides. The analysis was quantified by using both non-parametric and parametric tests through mean differences. One-way ANOVA analysis is used in case the dependent variables are normally distributed and non-parametric methods such as Willcoxon Mann-Whitney-U test, Kruskal Wallis test, Perason´s Chi-squared, and Fisher´s Exact test are applied for non normally distributed dependent variables. Descriptive statistical tools were combined with a composite index to assess the vulnerability level of farmers regarding flash floods and landslides. Then, regression analyses (multinomial logit regression and multivariate probit regression) were applied to investigate the determinants of households’ perception of and their choices in adaptation practices to flash floods and landslides. The regression models were run by using STATA software.

Major findings

The survey results reveal that the research areas are dominated by male-headed households.

People in the regions mainly belong to ethnic minority groups, which are characterized by a low level of education, a high dependency rate, and great reliance on agriculture. Joining in local organizations of farmers and providing supports (either in-kind or spiritual assistance) to each other have been witnessed throughout three surveyed communes. Yet, the linkage between farmers and extension officials still remains a concerning issue that local authorities should pay more attention to because of its inefficiency. Livelihoods of households are associated with small-scale farming, and farm income has typically resulted from the cultivation of rice, maize, cassava, and cinnamon. However, having land without tenure certificates, obstacles in assessing

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credit, and ineffective operation of irrigation systems are also recorded as key reasons leading to people 's hesitation in making investment decisions on their farming system. Most households are able to access to electricity while approaching to the Internet has not been popular yet in the research areas. Using natural water sources for daily life demands without considering any treatment measures and consuming firewood as a principal source of cooking are additional issues affecting to health-related problems in the regions.

Most of the respondents in the research areas observed an increase in the frequency and impacts of flash floods and landslides over 15 recent years. As indicated by a majority of local households, declining crop yields and income, increasing daily expenses, escalating the severity of the working condition, and increasing disease outbreak for livestock and poultry are unavoidable harassments translated by flash floods and landslides. The majority of respondents did respond to these natural hazards by means of applying adaptation measures on their agricultural activities. Among all responses, changes in cropping patterns, crop diversification, altering crop varieties, crop management, and protection methods (soil and plant) are the most common practices implemented by local farmers to adapt to flash floods and landslides. Famers also confirmed obstacles hindering their incentives in uptaking adaptation practices, such as a lack of production means and family labor forces, a limitation of knowledge about flash floods and landslides, difficulties in accessing updated climate information, insufficient or limited support from local government, social and cultural barriers, and limited awareness.

The Household Vulnerability Index pointed out that farmers in Dai Son commune are more vulnerable than those in An Binh and An Thinh communes subject to the impacts of flash floods and landslides, which identified by the Social Network, Socio-Demographic Profile, and Wate component. The regression results from MNL models disclose that experience in agriculture, gender, ethnic minority group, poor household, distance to market, climate information, and agro-ecological zone have strong influences on the farmers´ perception of flash floods and landslides.

In addition, the adaptation models reveal that farmers´ perceptions on flash floods and landslides in accordance with socio-economic, farming features, and institutional conditions, such as ethnic minority group, the literacy, the household condition, farm income, market availability, land ownership, and farm size, have significant influences on farmers’ preference in selecting adaptation measures regarding flash floods and landslides.

Policy recommendations

Based on the empirical findings, this research provides some suggestions for identifying policy interventions that may help to reduce the household´s vulnerability and to promote local farmers in adaptation process towards flash floods and landslides, such as:

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- Promoting farmers´ literacy and organizing vocational training courses;

- Strengthening the agricultural extension services;

- Facilitating and simplifying the applying process of the credit system;

- Paving the way for people to have the land right certificate.

The other recommendations, for example, improving the quality of drinking water sources, enhancing the irrigation systems, supplying agricultural production inputs with reasonable prices, and providing the local weather forecast, should also be stressed and received more attention from local authorities.

Areas for further research

Follow up studies may address how other natural hazards such as drought, flood, and salinity instruction impact on the livelihood of rural households in other regions at a larger scale (regional and national level). Further studies should also consider to analyze the farmer's adaptation in a complete context comprising of changes in the institutional, environmental, and economic situation. Furthermore, the data should be gathered at a different time (panel data), that can help the researchers make a comparison and have a comprehensive look at the study areas.

7.2 Zusammenfassung