| Project Detail |
The Mekong Delta in the south of Vietnam, a region of 40,000 square kilometers and approximately 18 million people, is among the world’s most vulnerable regions to the impacts of climate change. It is an agricultural powerhouse that produces roughly half of Vietnam’s total rice harvest and nearly three-quarters of its fruit, aquaculture, and fisheries products. However, the region faces a myriad of threats due to climate change and exploitation of natural resources. USAID’s Climate Resilient Agriculture in the Mekong Delta (CRM) project helps to reduce vulnerabilities to economic shifts and natural disasters driven by climate change. The project does this by strengthening natural systems, diversifying livelihoods, and supporting low methane emission agriculture to bolster the climate resilience of vulnerable communities. Climate change impacts such as saltwater intrusion from sea level rise and land subsidence are already happening in the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta’s poor, ethnic minority farmers, whose livelihoods primarily depend on rice farming, are most vulnerable. This project works with the Government of Vietnam, private sector companies, vulnerable communities, and non-governmental entities to build adaptive capacity and lessen the impacts of climate change to vulnerable communities through activities including the development of alternative livelihoods and improving farming practices. |
