TY - JOUR

T1 - Climate change and farmers’ perceptions

T2 - impact on rubber farming in the upper Mekong region

AU - Min, Shi

AU - Wang, Xiaobing

AU - Jin, Shaoze

AU - Waibel, Hermann

AU - Huang, Jikun

N1 - Funding Information: This study was conducted in the framework of the Sino-German “SURUMER Project” funded by the Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Technologie und Forschung (BMBF), FKZ: 01LL0919. This work was also supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71761137002; 71673008; 71742002; 71603247).

PY - 2020/11

Y1 - 2020/11

N2 - This article examines the impact of farmers’ perceptions of temperature change on implementing environmentally friendly agriculture practices on rubber plantations. Based on the data collected from 611 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (XSBN) in the upper Mekong region, an endogenous switching probit model and an endogenous treatment effects model are applied to estimate the impacts of farmers’ perceptions of temperature change on implementing environmentally friendly rubber plantations (EFRP) proxied by the intercropping system. While the real annual average temperature in XSBN has been increasing, only 59% of respondents perceived an increasing trend, whereas over 38% perceived no change. Farmers’ perceptions of temperature change appear to hinge on their education and socioeconomic characteristics and the experience of shocks related to regional climate change. Improving farmers’ perceptions of increasing temperature can significantly foster their practice of EFRP. Hence, policies that promote awareness of regional climate change can effectively encourage the implementation of mitigation practices.

AB - This article examines the impact of farmers’ perceptions of temperature change on implementing environmentally friendly agriculture practices on rubber plantations. Based on the data collected from 611 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (XSBN) in the upper Mekong region, an endogenous switching probit model and an endogenous treatment effects model are applied to estimate the impacts of farmers’ perceptions of temperature change on implementing environmentally friendly rubber plantations (EFRP) proxied by the intercropping system. While the real annual average temperature in XSBN has been increasing, only 59% of respondents perceived an increasing trend, whereas over 38% perceived no change. Farmers’ perceptions of temperature change appear to hinge on their education and socioeconomic characteristics and the experience of shocks related to regional climate change. Improving farmers’ perceptions of increasing temperature can significantly foster their practice of EFRP. Hence, policies that promote awareness of regional climate change can effectively encourage the implementation of mitigation practices.

KW - Endogenous switching probit model

KW - Environmentally friendly agriculture

KW - Rubber intercropping

KW - Temperature change

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092409423&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10584-020-02876-2

DO - 10.1007/s10584-020-02876-2

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85092409423

VL - 163

SP - 451

EP - 480

JO - Climatic change

JF - Climatic change

SN - 0165-0009

IS - 1

ER -