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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the input- and output-specific technical inefficiency of Vietnamese prawn-rice rotational crops (PRRC) and to identify the impacts of the socio-economic characteristics of farmers and farms on these technical inefficiencies.

This study first used a Russell-type (input-output) directional distance function to estimate the input- and output-specific technical inefficiency. Second, it applied a bootstrap truncated regression to analyze the factors influencing these technical inefficiencies. Data were gathered through a survey among 94 farmers, from Ben Tre and Kien Giang provinces, the two popular PRRC areas in the Mekong Delta.

Results show that Vietnamese PRRC farmers could reduce the water surface area by 3%, the use of seedlings by 15%, labor by 16%, fertilizers by 26%, and the use of others by 24%, while simultaneously increasing the revenue of farming system by 57% relative to the variable returns to scale (VRS) frontier. Farmers with more years of experience are generally better in managing the use of seedlings and in improvement of revenue. Farmers in Kien Giang province are more efficient in achieving revenue of the PRRC farming system than farmers in Ben Tre province.

Outcomes of this study are useful to identify strategies in minimizing the use of inputs while simultaneously maximizing PRRC production.

This paper relates to the comparison of two mostly different ecological zones, being the dominant production areas of PRRC, in which, Kien Giang represents the western part, while Ben Tre is in the eastern part of the Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. The findings not only expand the current understanding but also suggest various meaningful research questions regarding the development of Vietnamese PRRC under the impacts of climate change. The study also contributes to the literature on examining the input- and output-specific technical inefficiencies and influencing factors.

In late 2015, the El Nĩno phenomenon induced Vietnam’s worst drought in 60 years, which lasted until mid-2016 and intensified the most expansive saline intrusion in 90 years. The combination of the two hazards resulted in a large-scale disaster, which has led 18 provinces of Vietnam, most of them from the Mekong Delta, to water shortage, insanitation, human and animal diseases, food emergency need and a considerable disruption in local communities’ livelihoods. These devastating effects raise the question of what makes local households vulnerable to drought and saline intrusion. The chapter argues that vulnerability to the natural disaster is not something resulted from external threats, but rather, is derived from the interplay between social structures residing deeply inside the socio-economic systems and agency’s conditions presenting at the household level. Social structures are rules and procedures that constrain and/or enable human actions in agricultural production, risk taking and adaptation. Agency refers to the capacities of disaster-affected households in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta who cultivated third rice crop and suffered heavily from the 2015–2016 disaster. In addition to households’ lack of planning and coping capacities, the constitution of vulnerability to drought and saline intrusion can be attributed to the interaction between farmers’ choice of extra rice crops and the state’s policies and directions in agricultural and irrigation development since 1990s to date.

A review of the existing literature on disasters, impact, local vulnerability, and adaptation indicates to the fact that recent increasing frequency of natural disasters (e.g., floods, storms, and drought) have increasingly caused impacts on a diverse set of physical and biological systems, especially for those living in the developing countries where their livelihood strategies rely on natural resources (McCarthy, Canziani, Leary, Dokken, & White, 2001; Selvaraju, Subbiah, Baas, & Juergens, 2006; Kumar, 2007; Cruz et al., 2007).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ willingness to pay for quality rice attributes in urban areas in the South of Vietnam, including organic and integrated pest management (IPM) as sustainable production methods, and claim about health benefits and fair farmer prices.

Cross-sectional data were collected in 2015 using a survey including a choice experiment (CE) (n=500). Generalized mixed logit models were estimated.

Vietnamese consumers are willing to pay a premium of 82 percent for organic rice, and 45 percent for rice produced using IPM, compared to conventionally produced rice. They are also willing to pay a premium of 95 percent for rice claiming to be rich in vitamins and other nutrients, and 50 percent for rice that guarantees a fair price to rice farmers.

A hypothetical CE was employed. Future research using revealed preference methods is suggested.

This study makes a significant contribution to the limited existing literature on consumers’ valuation of quality rice attributes in the context of developing countries such as Vietnam. The study shows that rice, that is, sustainably produced using organic or IPM methods provides a promising avenue for rice producers. This study highlights that there is an added value for rice with credence attributes in relation to sustainable production methods, health benefits, and fair farmer prices in a developing country.