Adaptation to Drought and El Niño Effects in the Central Highlands of Vietnam

The Central Highlands are one of Vietnam's most important agricultural regions, growing coffee, rubber, pepper, cashew nuts, vegetables, and fruits, all of which are in high demand and have tremendous export value. At the same time, Vietnam is one of the countries most affected by climate change, with the project region in the Central Highlands already sensitive to extreme weather events, such as those caused by El Niño. El Niño events typically occur every two to seven years and often result in severe droughts during the dry season in the project region. These in turn have a significant impact on agricultural production as well as the environment and the socio-economic sector. The impact of anthropogenic climate change could exacerbate this. Drought-ADAPT aims to develop innovative approaches to support short-, medium-, and long-term planning and adaptation measures to drought situations and their impact in the context of climate change. The project acts at different levels: local level: technically innovative engineering solutions at village level to support local communities in securing their investments and high agricultural productivity; regional level: developing innovative climate services to be used by local and regional authorities.