Adaptation to climate change in agricultural settings depends on understanding
farmers’ perceptions of the nature of climate change, their agency in adapting and the
efficacy of adaptive measures themselves. Such knowledge can improve mitigation and
adaptation strategies. This study addresses the limited understanding of how farmers
appraise their private adaptive measures and influential factors. It uses data from structured
interviews with 598 rice farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Based on protection
motivation theory, farmers’ assessments of private adaptive measures were measured by
perceived self-efficacy, perceived adaptation efficacy and perceived adaptation cost.
Multiple regressions were used to understand significant factors affecting those assessments.
Some demographic and socio-economic factors, belief in climate change, information
and objective resources were found to influence farmers’ adaptation assessments. It
is shown that the sources and quality of information are particularly important. The
improvement of both the accessibility and usefulness of local services (e.g. irrigation,agricultural extension, credit and health care) is deemed a necessity for successful adaptation
strategies in the Mekong Delta. The paper also shows the application of PMT in
measuring farmers’ appraisals of private adaptive measures to climate change, thereby
opening this area for further research.