Aung Tun Oo

Farm households in Myanmar are practicing diversification of crops as a strategy to reduce the likelihood of crop failure and meet their household’s dietary and calorie needs. This study aims to evaluate how crop diversification affects the dietary diversity and calorie intake of farm households in Myanmar. The farm household survey was carried out with 282 farm households in Yamethin District, utilizing structured questionnaires that included crop production, food group items, and food intake of farm households. Crop diversification level was determined using Simpson's diversification index, and the difference in dietary diversity intakes of farm households was measured using the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) method, which is based on seven food groups. Pearson’s correlation analysis was also used to measure the association between the level of crop diversification, and dietary diversity as well as calorie intake of farm households. The study revealed that crop diversification has a positive relationship with own production ratio, HDDS, and calorie intake of farm households. The findings indicate that farm households in Yamethin District should emphasize utilizing improved crop varieties in addition to varying their cropping patterns in order to meet their dietary and calorie needs. Additionally, this study emphasizes the necessity for the distribution of resistant crop varieties and provision of extension services by the government of Myanmar.

This study investigates the asymmetric impacts of climate extremes on the Italian agricultural sector. Utilizing annual time-series data from 1961 to 2023, the research employs a Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) framework. This methodological approach effectively captures the complex dynamics of environmental shocks that traditional linear models frequently overlook. The findings confirm a stable long-run relationship between agricultural production value, temperature, rainfall, and carbon emissions. Notably, the agricultural sector demonstrates a robust short-term adaptive capacity, recovering approximately 61% of climate-related economic disruptions within a single year. However, despite this recovery speed, the long-term coefficient analysis reveals a profound and disproportionate vulnerability to specific climatic extremes: heatwaves , cold snaps , and drought conditions inflict significantly greater negative impacts on agricultural value added than the corresponding economic benefits derived from favorable weather shifts. These results emphasize that Italian agricultural policy must transition from isolated adaptation efforts toward comprehensive climate volatility management. Consequently, the study highlights the critical need for resilient agricultural infrastructure and robust, all-weather mutual insurance programs to safeguard the sector’s long-term economic stability.

Oo AT, Minh DD. 2025. Assessment of the water insecurity of rice and fish farmers in the coastal areas of Myanmar and Vietnam. Asian J Agric 9: 191-200. Farm households along the coastlines of Myanmar and Vietnam are susceptible to climate-related hazards and the adverse effects of water insecurity. To understand the level of water insecurity of rice and fish farming households, this study examines water insecurity of households by using Guttman’s Water Insecurity Indexing (WII) analysis. This study was conducted with 899 farm households from Myanmar and Vietnam. A total of 29 indicators were selected and constituted into four major components. According to a total aggregate score, rice-farming households are more susceptible to accessing water sources and services than fish-farming households in both countries. Compared to farm households in Myanmar, farm households in Vietnam are particularly vulnerable to access to water sources, with scores of 0.414 and 0.334. There is little variation in the water resource management score. However, Myanmar’s farm households indicated more inadequate adaptation capacity (0.487) than Vietnam’s (0.462). Moreover, an idealized Guttman’s scale indicated that farm households in Myanmar had a lower level of intervention capability and adaptive capacity than farm households in Vietnam. The findings highlight the necessity of improving intervention capability and capacity and accessibility measures to improve the water security of farm households in both Myanmar and Vietnam.

Purpose: Climate change is an undeniable reality that threatens people’s livelihoods. Flooding and saltwater intrusion, along with the rising sea levels, are affecting agricultural and aquaculture livelihoods in Myanmar’s coastal areas. Although climate change adaptation is gaining popularity as a resilience strategy to cope with the negative effects of climate change, both agriculture- and aquaculture-farmers are more often deterred from implementing climate change adaptation strategies due to practical availability and socioeconomic barriers to adaptation. This study aims to evaluate the barriers and factors that influence farm household’ choice of climate change adaptation measures. Design/methodology/approach: This study was conducted with 599 farm households (484 rice-farmers and 115 fish farmers) based in the coastal areas of Myanmar during 2021–2022 to explore the farmer’s choice of climate change adaptation measures and the determining factors. The multinomial logit regression (MLR) model was used to examine the factors influencing the farmers’ choice of climate change adaptation strategies. Findings: The study found out that farm households use a variety of adaptation methods at the farm level, with building embankment strategy (23.4%) in agriculture and net-fencing measure (33.9%) in fish farming being the most popular adaptation strategies. Farmers’ decisions to adopt climate change adaptation strategies are influenced by factors such as distance to market, education level of the household head, remittance income and the availability of early warning information, among others. The study also discovered that COVID-19 has had an impact on the employment opportunities of household members and the income from farming as well had a consequential effect on the adoption of climate change adaptation measures. Furthermore, lack of credit (42.4%), labor shortage (52.8%), pest and disease infestation (58.9%), high input costs (81%) and lower agricultural product prices (73%) were identified as major barriers to the adoption of climate change adaptation measures by both agriculture and aquaculture farm households. Originality/value: This study demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic and farm-level barriers are the major factors influencing farm households’ choice of climate change adaptation measures, and that removing practical farm-level barriers and encouraging the adoption of adaptation techniques as potential COVID-19 recovery actions are required. This study also highlighted that the adaptive capacity of agriculture and aquaculture farm households should be strengthened through formal and informal training programs, awareness raising, the exchange of early warning information and the development of proper credit scheme programs.

Farm households along the coastlines of Myanmar and Vietnam are becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding, saltwater intrusion, and rising sea levels. There is little information available on the relative vulnerability of men- and women-headed households, and the governments of Myanmar and Vietnam have not identified or implemented any adaptive measures aimed specifically at vulnerable peoples. This study aims to fill these gaps and assess the relative climate change vulnerability of men- and women-headed farm households. This study considers 599 farm households from two regions of Myanmar and 300 households from Thua Thien Hue province of Vietnam for the period 2021–2022. We offer a livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) analysis of men- and women-headed farm households using 46 indicators arranged into seven major components. The aggregate LVI scores indicate that farm households in Myanmar are more vulnerable (scores of 0.459 for men and 0.476 for women) to climate-related natural disasters than farm households in Vietnam (scores of 0.288 for men and 0.292 for women), regardless of the gender of the head of household. Total vulnerability indexing scores indicate that women-headed households are more vulnerable than men-headed households in both countries. Poor adaptive capacity and highly sensitive LVI dimensional scores explain the greater vulnerability of women-headed farm households. The findings also highlight the importance of the adaptive capacity components reflected in the LVI analysis in reducing farm households’ vulnerability.

The agricultural sector provides employment and income to the majority of Myanmar’s population. The sector, however, is extremely susceptible to severe weather, rising temperatures, and changes in precipitation. A lack of knowledge about farming communities’ climate change vulnerabilities, as well as the insufficient integration of policies and programs, is a constraint to climate change adaptation in agriculture sectors. This paper analyzes the drivers of the agricultural sector’s vulnerability to climate change and highlights the key production systems that are most at risk in Myanmar. The paper examines historical climate information and the anticipated effects of climate change. We include an in-depth literature review and summaries of climate change adaptation efforts in agriculture sectors, along with recommendations for targeted, locally appropriate actions to strengthen the resilience of the agricultural sector. Farm households use a combination of scientific and indigenous adaptation strategies to cope with the effects of climate change. Additionally, the study reviews Myanmar’s institutional framework for climate action and government priorities for adaptation measures, emphasizes the urgent need for climate action in agriculture sectors, and calls for more research and development efforts on the effects of climate change on rural livelihoods and agriculture.

The agricultural sector provides employment and income to the majority of Myanmar's population. The sector, however, is extremely susceptible to severe weather, rising temperatures, and changes in precipitation. This paper aims to analyze how vulnerable Myanmar's agricultural sector is to climate change and highlights the key sectors that are most at risk. This report also examines historical climate information, and the anticipated effects of climate change on Myanmar's agricultural sectors. In-depth literature reviews and summaries of Myanmar's climate change adaptation efforts are included in the report, along with recom-mendations for targeted, locally appropriate actions to strengthen the country's agricultural sector's resilience. Additionally, the study reviews Myanmar's in-stitutional framework for climate action and government priorities for adaptation measures, emphasizes the urgent need for climate action in Myanmar's agricul-ture sectors and calls for more research and development efforts on the effects of climate change on rural livelihoods and agriculture.

Southeast Asia is considered one of the world’s climate hotspots as the countries in the Mekong region, in particular, will be the hardest hit by the impacts of climate change if the global temperature continues to rise. This study aims to evaluate the differences in climate change-induced vulnerability of farm households in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. The total sample size was 999 farm respondents, of which 304 were from Myanmar, 350 from Vietnam, and 345 from Cambodia. The farm households’ vulnerability was measured using an advanced indicator or indexing method with balanced or equal weighting. A total of 36 indicators were selected based on an extensive literature review and expert judgment. Each major component was comprised of sub-components and indicators, which were standardized using a balanced weighted average approach. The findings reveal that Myanmar was high in all components of climate change vulnerability, whereas Vietnam was the second most vulnerable country, followed by Cambodia. Based on the findings, we suggest implementing policy measures that aim to reduce the sensitivity dimension of farm households, such as by improving early warning systems, increasing public funding investment in infrastructure development, and creating embankments to prevent saltwater incursion, while empowering the adaptive capacity of farm households. Furthermore, we also recommend establishing the necessary healthcare facilities, strengthening the public-private partnership, increasing outreach and healthcare services, and improving access to the formal credit system.