The impact of an adjusted cropping calendar on the welfare of rice farming households in the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam

The study assessed the impacts of an adjusted cropping calendar on the welfare of rice farming households in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) of Vietnam in the 2019/20 Winter–Spring (W-S) crop season. Some farmers in the study area practiced early planting as an adaptation strategy to avoid the risk of saline intrusion during the 2019–2020 El Niño. The study randomly surveyed 1,176 rice farmers in three MRD provinces, namely, Long An, Kien Giang, and Soc Trang, of which 412 were early planters and 764 were non-early planters. Propensity score matching was applied to explore the effects of early planting on the rice yield and rice farming income. Early planting during the 2019/20 W-S season produced (i) an increase in rice farming income of VND 22.8–24.6 million per farmer or VND 8.62–8.77 million per hectare; (ii) an increase in the annual rice farming income of VND 13.7–17.1 million per farmer or VND 3.2–4.3 million per hectare; and (iii) an increase in rice yield by 5.29–5.67 tons per farmer or 2.51–2.59 tons per hectare. The findings confirm that adjusting the rice cropping calendar as an adaptation strategy against salinity can improve rice farmers’ production and income.