Implementing Agricultural Land Use Solutions to Adapt Climate Change in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Abstract

The paper presents theoretical issues related to climate change, agricultural land use, and the impact of climate change on agricultural land use in the Mekong Delta. The research used comparative method and assessment method to point out the difficulties and challenges of climate change for agricultural land use as a basis for proposing solutions for effective and sustainable agricultural land use with climate change adaptation. As of June 2016, 13/13 provinces and cities in the region had been declared as affected by natural disasters, drought, and saline intrusion. Drought and saline intrusion caused about 139,000 hectares of paddy rice to be damaged with more than 50% of the area lost, causing about 215 billion VND loss and making about 400,000 households (1.5 million people) devoid of water with an estimated total loss of nearly 7520 billion VND. The proposed solutions included perfecting policies and laws; changing varieties, crop structure, and economic structure; applying achievements of Industrial Revolution 4.0 in agricultural land use; limiting climate change-induced factors; enhancing the role of communities in the use of agricultural land adapted to climate change; completing the planning; and building synchronous infrastructure and financial guarantee to implement solutions to adapt to climate change.