Author : Yarzar Hein

Summary : Most recent climate change projections confirm the increasing trends of temperature and precipitation and related events such as droughts, floods, and further shrinking monsoon season in Myanmar. Recognizing the need for adaptation and mitigation considerations in agriculture, the Government of Myanmar is currently formulating and implementing policies, strategies, and action plans for adaptation and mitigation programs in agriculture sector. In that case, adaptation to climate change has a vital role in sustainable development of agriculture through accurate perception and adaptive capacity of farms. More accurate perceptions lead to stronger adaptation intentions, resulting better adaptive capacity and consequently reducing household vulnerability to climate change.

The study verifies that long term climate variability affects rice supply of the country negatively and causes diverse rice supply responses in each region of Myanmar. It calls for an inclusive policy framework for location specified adaptation/mitigation strategies in the country. Moreover, it reveals that the accuracy of farmer's perceptions is critically important for appropriate adaptation implementation, and hence, local weather information distribution and integration of such information in training programs or extension service are observed as the key strategies. Besides, farmer’s perception, adaptive capacity, and household vulnerability influence their agricultural adaptations and support that consideration of farmer adaptive capacity is an indispensable issue in the formulation of local adaptation strategies to climate change. In addition, the study observes that the appropriate adaptation strategies enhance economic condition of farms.