As a result of climate change, Vietnam is expected to experience extended rainy seasons, longer and more severe dry seasons, higher temperatures, and more frequent extreme weather events (SCC 2019). It is estimated that by 2050 Vietnam could see a loss of up to 50% of its Robusta coffee production area due to changes in rainfall patterns and increased temperatures (ICO 2019). The likely impacts of climate change on coffee production can be seen in the figure below:
Coffee farmers in the Central Highlands have already experienced changes in weather patterns, and it is projected that climate change will only exacerbate these shifts in the future. Farmers will need to adapt, and their decision-making could be aided with access to the appropriate information. Enter: climate information services.
Climate information services (CIS) aims to connect farmers with useful weather information that can improve their decision-making (Partey et al. 2020). Weather and climate have great influence on crop production, so access to CIS can greatly benefit farmers when making both short- and long-term decisions regarding their farming practices (Haigh et a. 2018).
This video by the United Nations World Food Program, provides a brief overview of CIS:
However, while CIS has the potential to improve farmers’ adaptive capacity to the shocks of climate change, farmers that are most vulnerable, and therefore could benefit the most from the information, are often the ones who have less access to it (Archer 2003).
The focus of my thesis research is how to best close this access gap and connect marginalized coffee farmers in Vietnam to climate information services. More information on my research can be found in my previous blog post.
Sources:
Archer, E. R. (2003). “Identifying underserved end-user groups in the provision of climate information.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
International Coffee Organization. (2019). Country Coffee Profile: Vietnam. Retrieved June 29, 2020, from http://www.ico.org/documents/cy2018-19/icc-124-9e-profile-vietnam.pdf
Haigh, T., et al. (2018). “Provision of climate services for agriculture: public and private pathways to farm decision-making.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 99(9): 1781-1790.
Partey, S. T., et al. (2020). “Gender and climate risk management: evidence of climate information use in Ghana.” Climatic Change 158(1): 61-75.
Sustainable Coffee Challenge. Coffee Production in the Face of Climate Change: Vietnam. Retrieved June 23, 2020, from https://www.sustaincoffee.org/assets/resources/Vietnam_CountryProfile_Climate_Coffee_6-11.pdf