The effectiveness of SRP to sustainable rice production in Mekong Delta Vietnam

Rice is the daily staple food of 3.5 billion people in the world. Vietnam, providing around 16% of the world’s milled rice exports, is the fifth-largest rice producer. Despite the role of rice in Vietnam’s economy, food security, and local livelihoods, rice farmers in Mekong Delta are now amongst the most vulnerable groups affected by the negative impacts of climate change and will be unstainable rice production. Using the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP), consists of 12 sustainability impact indicators, linked to SDGs, as the best practices case to help rice farmers produce sustainable rice production. This study provides empirical evidence on the benefits of SRP adoption and explore factors affecting SRP uptake. Surveys and FGDs were applied to collect data from 243 rice-farmers in Dong Thap province. T-test and logistic regression were applied to analyse data. Results show that farmers have positively experienced SRP adoption and farmers achieved benefits from SRP adoption such as reduced input cost and increased income. Regression showed that socioeconomic, cognitive, and farm techniques factors strongly affected farmers’ adoption of SRP. Therefore, to scale up farmers’ SRP adoption training and technical assistance, socioeconomic constraints (e.g. water use) are required. Policymakers, planners, and private actors, particularly farmers’ behaviour need to consider the factors that affecting them adopting SRP. Finally, this study highlights the potential of SRP to promote environmentally sustainable rice production and improve farmers' resilience to climate change.