Livelihood vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate change: A comparative analysis based on irrigation access in South Sulawesi, Indonesia

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2022.10.002

Abstract

Abstract:

Bulukumba Regency is one of the major rice-producing areas in South Sulawesi, Indonesia and has experienced frequent climate disasters over the past decade. Several downstream villages within the Bettu River irrigation area have been affected by the drought, culminating in reduced lowland rice production and increasing the vulnerability of farmers’ livelihoods. This study aims to evaluate the vulnerability of the livelihood system among rice farmers in the Bettu River irrigation area by classifying the area into two zones based on the distance from the main irrigation canal, namely the upstream area and downstream area. The livelihood vulnerability index (LVI) framework and livelihood vulnerability index-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC) approach were applied by selecting geographic and socio-demographic indicators that affected the farmer households, including 8 major components and 26 sup-components. The data for LVI-IPCC estimation were collected by randomly selecting 132 households from villages in the two areas. The empirical results showed that farmers in the downstream area were more vulnerable to climate change than farmers in the upstream area. The major components causing the livelihood vulnerability of the downstream farmers were livelihood strategy, food, water, land, health, as well as natural disasters and climate variability. In particular, the sub-components of agricultural livelihood diversification, consistent water supply for farming, and drought events were important in the downstream area. Farmers in the upstream area were vulnerable to socio-demographic profile and social network components. The LVI-IPCC findings suggested that the government should prioritize farmers in the downstream area to develop resilience strategies, particularly by increasing irrigation infrastructure and the number of reservoirs and drilling holes. Furthermore, to increase their adaptive capacity in terms of diversification of agricultural livelihood systems, the government and donor agencies need to provide trainings on the development of home food industries for poor farmers and vulnerable households that were affected by disasters.

Key words: Livelihood vulnerability index (LVI), Livelihood vulnerability index-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC), Climate change, Irrigation area, Lowland rice, Farmer, Indonesia

ARIFAH , Darmawan SALMAN, Amir YASSI, Eymal Bahsar DEMMALLINO. Livelihood vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate change: A comparative analysis based on irrigation access in South Sulawesi, Indonesia[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2022, 3(3): 244-253.

Figures/Tables 7

Fig. 1.

Table 1

Major components of the livelihood vulnerability index-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (LVI-IPCC) framework in this study."

Contributing factor	Major component	Definition	Reference
Adaptive capacity	Livelihood strategy	Farmers’ strategies for dealing with the impact of climate change, such as diversifying agricultural livelihood systems or working in different communities	Ellis (1998); Liu et al. (2018)
	Socio-demographic profile	Farmer characteristics that influence knowledge and response to climate change impacts, including age, gender, educational background, farming experience, etc.	Hahn et al. (2009); Shen et al. (2022)
	Social network	A set of specific relationships among a group of people, in which the characteristics of those relationships can be used in dealing with the impacts of climate change	Mitchell (1969); Nguyen and Leisz (2021)
Sensitivity	Food	Food security and factors that contribute to farmers’ vulnerability in the face of climate change, such as crop diversification and the ability to store seeds and crops	Hahn et al. (2009); Adu et al. (2018)
	Water	Water availability for farmers to water their agricultural land in the face of climate change impacts	Adu et al. (2018); Ho et al. (2022)
	Land	Land conditions and factors that contribute to livelihood vulnerability to the effects of climate change, such as location, area, and land ownership status	Mitchell and McEvory (2019); Murken and Gornott (2022)
	Health	Health status that contributes to the vulnerability of farmers’ livelihood systems to the impacts of climate change, including the awareness of farmers to visit health services when sick	Hahn et al. (2009); Adu et al. (2018)
Exposure	Natural disasters and climate variability	Natural disasters due to climate variability experienced by farmers in the last ten years, including droughts, floods, and pest attacks	Hahn et al. (2009); Ho et al. (2022)

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Fig. 2.

Table 4

Fig. 3.

References 51

[1]	Adu, D.T., Kuwornu, J.K.M., Anim-Somuah, H., et al., 2018. Application of livelihood vulnerability index in assessing smallholder maize farming households’ vulnerability to climate change in Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences. 39(1), 22-32. doi: 10.1016/j.kjss.2017.06.009
[2]	Adzawla, W., Azumah, S.B., Anani, P.Y., et al., 2020. Analysis of farm households’ perceived climate change impacts, vulnerability and resilience in Ghana. Sci. Afr. 8, e00397, doi: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00397. doi: 10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00397
[3]	Arifah, Salman, D., Yassi, A., et al., 2021. Farmer’s perception of climate change and the impacts on livelihood in South Sulawesi. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 810, 012010, doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/810/1/012010. doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/810/1/012010
[4]	Asfaw, A., Bantider, A., Simane, B., et al., 2021. Smallholder farmers’ livelihood vulnerability to climate change-induced hazards: agroecology-based comparative analysis in Northcentral Ethiopia (Woleka Sub-basin). Heliyon. 7(4), e06761, doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06761. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06761
[5]	Blackmore, I., Rivera, C., Waters, W.F., et al., 2021. The impact of seasonality and climate variability on livelihood security in the Ecuadorian Andes. Clim. Risk Manag. 32, 100279, doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2021.100279. doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2021.100279
[6]	BPS Badan Pusat Statistik-Statistics Indonesia, 2021. Analysis of Rice Productivity In Indonesia 2020 (results of a tile survey). [2022-05-10]. https://www.bps.go.id/publication/2021/07/12/ed3e9eba9bbc7a1a6a3f4b6d/analisis-produktivitas-padi-di-indonesia-2020-hasil-survei-ubinan-.html (in Indonesian).
[7]	Brown, P.R., Afroz, S., Chialue, L., et al., 2019. Constraints to the capacity of smallholder farming households to adapt to climate change in South and Southeast Asia. Clim. Dev. 11(5), 383-400. doi: 10.1080/17565529.2018.1442798
[8]	Dendir, Z., Simane, B., 2019. Livelihood vulnerability to climate variability and change in different agroecological zones of Gurage Administrative Zone, Ethiopia. Prog. Disaster Sci. 3, 100035, doi: 10.1016/j.pdisas.2019.100035. doi: 10.1016/j.pdisas.2019.100035
[9]	Ehsan, S., Begum, R.A., Maulud, K.N.A., 2022. Household external vulnerability due to climate change in Selangor coast of Malaysia. Clim. Risk Manag. 35, 100408, doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2022.100408. doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2022.100408
[10]	Ellis, F., 1998. Household strategies and rural livelihood diversification. J. Dev. Stud. 35(1), 1-38.
[11]	Ghosh, M., Ghosal, S., 2020. Determinants of household livelihood vulnerabilities to climate change in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal, India. Int. J. Disast. Risk Re. 50, 101706, doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101706. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101706
[12]	Government of the Republic of Indonesia, 2021. Indonesia Long-Term Strategy for Low Carbon and Climate Resilience 2050 (Indonesia LTS-LCCR 2050). [2022-04-15]. https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/Indonesia_LTS-LCCR_2021.pdf.
[13]	Guo, H., Wang, R., Garfin, G.M., et al., 2021. Rice drought risk assessment under climate change: Based on physical vulnerability a quantitative assessment method. Sci. Total Environ. 751, 141481, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141481. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141481
[14]	Guo, R., Li, Y.Y., Shang, L., et al., 2021. Local farmer’s perception and adaptive behavior toward climate change. J. Clean. Prod. 287, 125332, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125332. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125332
[15]	Gupta, A.K., Negi, M., Nandy, S., et al., 2020. Mapping socio-environmental vulnerability to climate change in different altitude zones in the Indian Himalayas. Ecol. Indic. 109, 105787, doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105787. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105787
[16]	Hahn, M.B., Riederer, A.M., Foster, S.O., 2009. The livelihood vulnerability index: A pragmatic approach to assessing risks from climate variability and change-A case study in Mozambique. Global Environ. Chang. 19(1), 74-88.
[17]	Handayani, W., Rudiarto, I., Setyono, J.S., et al., 2017. Vulnerability assessment: A comparison of three different city sizes in the coastal area of Central Java, Indonesia. Adv. Clim. Chang. Res. 8(4), 286-296.
[18]	Ho, T.D.N., Kuwornu, J.K.M., Tsusaka, T.W., et al., 2021. An assessment of the smallholder rice farming households’ vulnerability to climate change and variability in the Mekong delta region of Vietnam. Local Environ. 26(8), 948-966. doi: 10.1080/13549839.2021.1937971
[19]	Ho, T.D.N., Kuwornu, J.K.M., Tsusaka, T.W., 2022. Factors influencing smallholder rice farmers’ vulnerability to climate change and variability in the Mekong Delta Region of Vietnam. Eur. J. Dev. Res. 34(1), 272-302. doi: 10.1057/s41287-021-00371-7
[20]	Huong, N.T.L., Yao, S.B., Fahad, S., 2019. Assessing household livelihood vulnerability to climate change: The case of Northwest Vietnam. Hum. Ecol. Risk Assess. 25(5), 1157-1175. doi: 10.1080/10807039.2018.1460801
[21]	Huynh, L.T.M., Stringer, L.C., 2018. Multi-scale assessment of social vulnerability to climate change: An empirical study in coastal Vietnam. Clim. Risk Manag. 20, 165-180.
[22]	IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), 2014. Climate Change 2014—Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability: Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects:Working Group II Contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1-32.
[23]	IPCC, 2022. Summary for Policymakers. In: Pörtner, H.-O., Roberts, D.C., Tignor, M., et al., (eds.). Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 3-33.
[24]	Jamshidi, O., Asadi, A., Kalantari, K., et al., 2019. Vulnerability to climate change of smallholder farmers in the Hamadan Province, Iran. Clim. Risk Manag. 23, 146-159.
[25]	Jezeer, R.E., Verweij, P.A., Boot, R.G.A., et al., 2019. Influence of livelihood assets, experienced shocks and perceived risks on smallholder coffee farming practices in Peru. J. Environ. Manage. 242, 496-506. doi: S0301-4797(19)30568-7 pmid: 31075644
[26]	Kamaluddin, A., 2019. Rice farmer adaptation to climate change in South Sulawesi Province. Int. J. Innov. Sci. Res. Technol. 4(6), 60-67.
[27]	Khan, I., Lei, H.D., Shah, I.A., et al., 2020. Farm households’ risk perception, attitude and adaptation strategies in dealing with climate change: Promise and perils from rural Pakistan. Land Use Policy. 91, 104395, doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104395. doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104395
[28]	Kumar, S., Mishra, A.K., Pramanik, S., et al., 2020. Climate risk, vulnerability and resilience: Supporting livelihood of smallholders in semiarid India. Land Use Policy. 97, 104729, doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104729. doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104729
[29]	Liu, Z., Chen, Q., Xie, H., 2018. Influence of the farmer’s livelihood assets on livelihood strategies in the western mountainous area, China. Sustainability. 10(3), 875, doi: 10.3390/su10030875. doi: 10.3390/su10030875
[30]	Mallari, A.C.E., Ezra, C.A., 2016. Climate change vulnerability assessment in the agriculture sector: Typhoon Santi experience. Urban Planning and Architechtural Design for Sustainable Development. 216, 440-451.
[31]	Mitchell, D., McEvoy, D., 2019. Land Tenure and Climate Vulnerability. [2022-04-30]. https://unhabitat.org/sites/default/files/documents/2019-06/un-habitat-gltn-land-and-climate-vulnerability-19-00693-web.pdf.
[32]	Mitchell, J.C., 1969. Social Network in Urban Situation:Analysis of Personal Relationship in Central African Towns. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1-2.
[33]	Murken, L., Gornott, C., 2022. The importance of different land tenure systems for farmers’ response to climate change: A systematic review. Clim. Risk Manag. 35, 100419, doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2022.100419. doi: 10.1016/j.crm.2022.100419
[34]	Nguyen, T.T., Nguyen, T.T., Le, V.H., et al., 2020. Reported weather shocks and rural household welfare: Evidence from panel data in Northeast Thailand and Central Vietnam. Weather Clim. Extreme. 30, 100286, doi: 10.1016/j.wace.2020.100286. doi: 10.1016/j.wace.2020.100286
[35]	Nguyen, Y.T.B., Leisz, S.J., 2021. Determinants of livelihood vulnerability to climate change: Two minority ethnic communities in the northwest mountainous region of Vietnam. Environ. Sci. Policy. 123, 11-20. doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2021.04.007
[36]	Puspitasari, D., Salman, D., Rukmana, D., et al., 2019. Household vulnerability located on land conversion for palm: Case study of Pinrang Sub-District, Wajo District, South Sulawesi. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 235, 012069, doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/235/1/012069. doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/235/1/012069
[37]	Qin, Z., Haili, X., Xiao, L., et al., 2022. Livelihood vulnerability of pastoral households in the semiarid grasslands of northern China: Measurement and determinants. Ecol. Indic., 140, 109020, doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109020. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109020
[38]	Rahman, M.S., Sujan, M.H.K., Acharjee, D.C., et al., 2022. Intensity of adoption and welfare impacts of drought-tolerant rice varieties cultivation in Bangladesh. Heliyon. 8(5), e09490, doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09490. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e09490
[39]	Salman, D., Kasim, K., Ahmad, A., et al., 2021. Combination of bonding, bridging and linking social capital in a livelihood system: nomadic duck herders amid the Covid-19 pandemic in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. For. Soc. 5(1), 136-158.
[40]	Saptutyningsih, E., Diswandi, D., Jaung, W., 2020. Does social capital matter in climate change adaptation ? A lesson from agricultural sector in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Land Use Policy. 95, 104189, doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104189. doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104189
[41]	Shen, J.Y., Duan, W., Wang, Y.Q., et al., 2022. Household livelihood vulnerability to climate change in West China. Int. J. Env. Res. Pub. He. 19(1), 551, doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010551. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19010551
[42]	Skendžić, S., Zovko, M., Živković, I.P., et al., 2021. The impact of climate change on agricultural insect pests. Insects. 12(5), 440, doi: 10.3390/insects12050440. doi: 10.3390/insects12050440
[43]	Sundar Pani, B., Mishra, D., 2022. Sustainable livelihood security in Odisha, India: A district level analysis. Regional Sustainability. 3(2), 110-121. doi: 10.1016/j.regsus.2022.07.003
[44]	Statistics Indonesia Bulukumba Regency, 2021. Bulukumba Regency in Figures 2021. [2022-05-12]. https://bulukumbakab.bps.go.id/publication/2021/02/26/a958b208b525cae0109caacb/kabupaten-bulukumba-dalam-angka-2021.html (in Indonesian).
[45]	Tran, P.T., Vu, B.T., Ngo, S.T., et al., 2022. Climate change and livelihood vulnerability of the rice farmers in the North Central Region of Vietnam: A case study in Nghe An Province, Vietnam. Environmental Challenges. 7, 100460, doi: 10.1016/j.envc.2022.100460. doi: 10.1016/j.envc.2022.100460
[46]	van Huynh, C., van Scheltinga, C.T., Pham, T.H., et al., 2019. Drought and conflicts at the local level: Establishing a water sharing mechanism for the summer-autumn rice production in Central Vietnam. Int. Soil Water Conse. 7(4), 362-375.
[47]	World, Bank, 2021. Climate Risk Country Profile-Indonesia. [2022-04-29]. https://reliefweb.int/report/indonesia/climate-risk-country-profile-indonesia#:-:text=Indonesia%20is%20ranked%20in%20the%20top-third%20of%20countries,Without%20effective%20adaptation%2C%20population%20exposure%20will%20also%20rise.
[48]	Yamane, T., 1967. Statistics:An Introductory Analysis (2^rd edition). New York: Harper and Row, 223-256.
[49]	Yuliawan, T., Handoko, I., 2016. The effect of temperature rise to rice crop yield in Indonesia uses Shierary Rice Model with geographical information system (GIS) feature. 2ND International Sysposium on Lapan-IPB Satellite (LISAT) for Food Security and Environmental Monitering. 33, 214-220.
[50]	Zhang, H.F., Zhao, Y.D., Pedersen, J., 2020. Capital assets framework for analysing household vulnerability during disaster. Disasters. 44(4), 687-707. doi: 10.1111/disa.12393 pmid: 31334856
[51]	Zhang, Q., Xue, H.L., Lan, X., et al., 2022. Livelihood vulnerability of pastoral households in the semiarid grasslands of northern China: Measurement and determinants. Ecol. Indic. 140, 109020, doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109020. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109020

Sub-component	LVI		Major component	LVI
Sub-component	Downstream area	Upstream area	Major component	Downstream area	Upstream area
Agricultural livelihood diversification	0.72	0.36	Livelihood strategy	0.62	0.48
Household dependent solely on agriculture	0.60	0.56
Family members working in different communities	0.55	0.52
Dependency ratio	0.41	0.49	Socio-demographic profile	0.34	0.42
Education level of household head	0.24	0.36
Farming experience of household head	0.36	0.42
No membership with any community	0.54	0.44	Social network	0.43	0.50
Households with media access in the house	0.44	0.12
No access to credit loans	0.30	0.51
Receive:give ratio	0.38	0.54
No access to local government assistance in the past 12 months	0.47	0.90
Crop diversity index	0.54	0.13	Food	0.55	0.52
Do not save crops	0.49	0.69
Do not save seeds	0.62	0.75
Do not have consistent water supply	0.95	0.54	Water	0.91	0.37
Utilize a natural water source for farming	0.97	0.29
Water conflict	0.81	0.27
Land location	0.59	0.26	Land	0.59	0.26
Area of rice field	0.22	0.11
Land tenure	0.56	0.51
Travel time to a health facility	0.54	0.38	Health	0.49	0.44
Family members did not see a doctor (medical services) during their illness	0.44	0.49	Health	0.49	0.44
Number of drought events in the past ten years	0.83	0.34	Natural disasters and climate variability	0.52	0.35
Number of flood events in the past ten years	0.15	0.27
Number of pest attacks events in the past ten years	0.51	0.50
Lost crops due to disaster	0.59	0.29
Overall				0.53	0.42

Contributing factor	LVI-IPCC
Contributing factor	Downstream area	Upstream area
Adaptive capacity	0.46	0.47
Sensitivity	0.66	0.42
Exposure	0.52	0.35
Overall	0.04	-0.05