Shifting crop planting calendar as a climate change adaptation solution for rice cultivation region in the long xuyen quadrilateral of Vietnam

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) paddies in the Long Xuyen Quadrilateral Region of Vietnam have regularly met the increased risks under the impacts of climate change (ICC), resulting in a decline in crop productivity. The objective of this study was to determine the suitable times for broadcasting rice crops in the rice cultivation paddies belonging to Long Xuyen Quadrilateral as a mitigation solution to the negative ICC. To conduct this research, crop model namely the FAO-AquaCrop (Version 6.0) was selected to simulate grain yields of rice crops based on different scenarios of crop broadcasting calendar (CBC). The results point out that the grain yield of winter-spring (WS) and summer-autumn (SA) cropping seasons can increase up to 6.2% and 5.3% if the CBC is delayed from 7 to 14 d compared to the current broadcasting calendar (baseline) in the two experimental areas while the grain yield of the autumn-winter (AW) cropping season can increase 6.4% if the CBC is shifted 14 d compared to the baseline. In general, a shift in the CBC for all rice broadcasting crops compared to the baseline can be considered as an effective solution to minimize the negative impacts of weather factors as well as contribute to improve rice productivity.