rubber farming households; climate variability; adaptive responses; rubber plantation; production; climate change; vulnerability; adaptation; resilience; adaptive capacity; climate pattern; market; production system; climate hazards; rainfall pattern; sustainable livelihood; human capital indicators; social capital indicators; natural capital indicators; infrastructure capital indicators; technology capital indicators; institution capital indicators; financial capital indicators; Myanmar
Climate variability impacts on the livelihood systems of rubber farming households when comprehensive study on the adaptive capacity of rubber farming households is lacking. The study assessed adaptive responses and capacity of rubber farming households to climate variability in Mudon Township, Mon State, Myanmar.
Data were gathered through household interview using structured questionnaire with 228 respondents, complemented by Key Informant Interview (KII), Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and field observation in the selected five villages. The study assessed seven capital resources - human, social, natural, infrastructure, technology, institution and financial to become final Human Adaptive Capacity Index (HACI). Adaptive capacity indicators were normalized using min-max approach and weighted by factor analysis to accept the indicators which are equal to, and higher than 0.5 factor loading value. Data were analyzed statistically using percentage, correlation coefficient of variation, paired sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA.
The study results showed that 75% and 78% of the respondents from selected areas had experiences about rainfall variability and extreme temperature from 20 years ago. There were slight changes in climatic trends from the past and, the projection shows that precipitation pattern is likely to change, with temperature likely to rise in 2020s, and 2050s. This means that the study area will be more vulnerable to climate variability in the future. The study found that the rubber farming households have ways of adaption such as changes of planting time, practice of mulching, changes of tapping time, closing farms during summer, to respond to adverse impacts of climate-related, events. However, the study revealed that majority of respondents (84%) has low level of capacity to adapt to climate hazards. The capacities of rubber farming communities are very limited in the case of institution capital (0.086) while the infrastructure capital index (0.513) showed the highest value among the seven capital resources. Households' adaptive capacity indices were validated by using respondents rating approach. Land holding sizes have positive significant effect on household adaptive capacity at 1% level. Selection of rubber market channel and existing rubber production system influences the households' adaptive capacity at 1% level of significance. To enhance the adaptive capacity of rubber farming households, policy implications are recommended in order to reduce the vulnerability to climate hazard effects and achieve sustainable rubber production.
