Factors influencing farming households’ climate change adaptation strategies in Central Vietnam

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0328058 July 10, 2025 3 / 22 10% of GDP per year by 2050 [26,31]. The agricultural sector, which remains central to Vietnam’s economy and food security, is particularly vulnerable. Climate change exerts adverse effects on agricultural production, threatening the live- lihoods of farming communities, national food security, and the value of agricultural exports [32,33]. As one of the world’s top five rice-exporting nations, Vietnam’s agricultural supply chains are increasingly exposed to climate-induced risks [26,34]. Despite various initiatives, climate adaptation efforts in Vietnam continue to face multiple constraints, including high exposure to hazards, heightened sensitivity, and limited adaptive capacity, especially in resource-scarce rural areas [35–37]. Globally, a substantial body of literature has explored the determinants of climate change adaptation strategies among communities and agricultural households in both developed and developing economies [38–40]. These studies typically identify behavioral, psychological, and socio-economic characteristics as key influencing factors. Theoretical frameworks underlying such research often derive from behavioral models, technology acceptance theories, and collective action paradigms [41–43]. Despite the substantial progress in the global literature on climate change adaptation among farming households, important research gaps remain—particularly in the context of transitional economies such as Vietnam, where institutional

reforms, environmental vulnerability, and livelihood diversification intersect in complex ways. First, while a significant body of empirical research has examined household-level adaptation in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, there is a noticeable dearth of studies focusing on Southeast Asia, especially in Vietnam. Within this region, rural house- holds residing in coastal and salinity-affected zones face unique climate risks, including saltwater intrusion, erratic rainfall, and seasonal droughts. Yet, household-level analyses of how these communities perceive, respond to, and cope with such hazards remain limited. As a result, current adaptation models may lack external validity when applied to South- east Asian coastal contexts, where socio-cultural and agro-ecological dynamics differ substantially from those studied in African or South Asian cases. Second, the majority of existing research tends to analyze adaptation using either a single strategy (e.g., crop diversification or irrigation) or aggregate adaptation indices, without unpacking the distinct types of strategies households may pursue simultaneously. Such an approach overlooks the inherent heterogeneity, sequencing, and trade-offs embedded in farmers’ adaptation decisions. In highly variable environments, households often adopt a combination of strategies based on resource constraints, perceived risks, and institutional access. Therefore, there is a critical need to disaggregate adaptation behavior across specific climate risks—such as drought versus saltwater intru-

sion—and to recognize that different strategies may be complementary, substitutive, or even conflicting. Third, although socio-economic, environmental, and institutional drivers of adaptation have been studied individually, few studies have integrated these dimensions within a coherent, multi-level analytical framework. This lack of integration has resulted in fragmented explanations that fail to capture the complex interplay of structural conditions, environmental pressures, and enabling institutions. Consequently, policy responses derived from such partial understandings may be less effective in addressing the real constraints faced by farmers on the ground. Fourth, behavioral and psychological determinants—such as risk perception, time preferences, trust in institutions, and intra-household dynamics—are frequently overlooked or only superficially addressed in adaptation studies. Yet these factors critically shape how individuals interpret climate risks, eval- uate adaptation options, and commit to action. In particular, farmers’ subjective expectations about future climate trends, their past experiences with crop failure, or the influence of gendered power relations within households can significantly influence whether and how adaptation occurs. The absence of these elements from most quantitative analyses leaves an important explanatory gap in understanding why some households adapt while others do not, even when faced with similar climatic and economic conditions [44,45].

From the analysis of the context and gaps in previous studies, this study proposes three main research questions (RQ). RQ1. What are the key socio-economic, institutional, and environmental factors that shape the heterogeneous adoption of climate change adaptation strategies among farming households in coastal and salinity-prone areas of transitional economies like Vietnam?