Encouraging the adoption of climate-smart rice farming in Vietnam
Switching to new agricultural methods requires farmers to change not one but many of their behaviours, making this a complex behavioural challenge. Specifically, adopting climate-friendly agricultural practices involves high stakes for farmers. The initial investment of time and resources in climate-friendly farming practices is often higher than for current methods. The outcomes associated with changing of their methods can appear uncertain when adopting such methods typically only brings rewards (i.e. increased yield, soil quality, income etc.) after the method is used for a few farming cycles.
This which poses yet another motivational barrier for many farmers. While policy changes and awareness raising approaches are necessary tools to promoting the adoption of sustainable farming practices these are not being enough to overcome these barriers and create the large scale change needed to reduce emissions.
Therefore, a behavioural science approach was needed, to help overcome these barriers by leveraging behavioural insights to complement the Vietnam Farmers' Union's current work and to encourage large scale adoption of climate-smart farming practices.
THE CHALLENGE
Vietnam is one of the world’s largest producers of rice, harvesting around 7.4 million hectares annually, an area larger than around double the side of Taiwan. Traditional paddy rice production methods (where fields are flooded) form a large proportion of Vietnam’s rice production and is estimated to account for 12% of methane emissions globally, a greenhouse gas that’s 24 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
For this Project, the Vietnam Farmers' Union used CARING to promote the adoption of climate-friendly rice farming.
Reducing wild meat consumption in Vietnam
Until now, approaches in Vietnam to reduce wildlife consumption have centred around a) education and raising awareness and b) fines and imprisonment – showing little to no decreases in reducing wild meat consumption. Scientists worldwide agree that whilst education and awareness are necessary for behaviour change, they alone are often not sufficient. This is because behaviour is not always deliberate, but rather irrational, unconscious, and driven by external contexts. Additionally, using incentives or disincentives such as fines or imprisonment can put a ‘price’ on a behaviour and crowd out any intrinsic, internal or altruistic motivations to ‘do the right thing’.
Using a behavioural science approach to reduce the consumption of wild meat was needed to uncover new, innovative insights that can help to inform the design of effective solutions which are aligned to people’s actual motivations and behaviours.
THE CHALLENGE
Vietnam ranks as the 16th most biologically diverse nation globally. The diverse landscape of Vietnam is a habitat for many rare and endangered flora and fauna species. However, this rich biological heritage is under threat. The rapid increase of income and quality of life in urban Vietnam are believed to be accelerating domestic demand for wild animal products – in particular for wild meat.
For this project Save Vietnam Wildlife has applied CARING framework.
