Climate change, rural household food consumption and vulnerability: The case of Ben Tre province in Vietnam

Climate change is associated to sea level rise, increases in temperature and inland salt water intrusion in Vietnam. Ben Tre Province in the Mekong Delta has suffered immensely from recent climate change triggered weather events. Along with salt water intrusion, unusual typhoons also inflicted serious damages to the economy of the province. In this study, we attempt to measure the effects of climate change on household consumption and levels of vulnerability. Three hundred households were surveyed. The distribution of vulnerability index showed that on average there is a 43 percent probability that a coastal household will fall below the minimum consumption threshold level of US $1.25 per capita per day. Forty-six percent of households are vulnerable to climatic risk, while 54 percent of households are considered not vulnerable. The factors affecting food consumption in rural households in Ben Tre Province are the households other sources of income, education level of head of households, livelihood diversity index, the number of contacts the household made to access credit, gender of the head of the household and the number of young people working outside the household. Level of education of the head of household marginally increases consumption risks. The average number of floods that affect the household in the past 10 years reduces consumption vulnerability while the average number of the floods that inundated the community in the past ten years increases consumption vulnerability