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Abstract
Climate change is associated to sea level rise, increases in temperature and inland
salt water intrusion in Vietnam. Ben Tre Province in the Mekong Delta has suffered
immensely from recent climate change triggered weather events. Along with salt water
intrusion, unusual typhoons also inflicted serious damages to the economy of the province.
In this study, we attempt to measure the effects of climate change on household
consumption and levels of vulnerability. Three hundred households were surveyed. The
distribution of vulnerability index showed that on average there is a 43 percent probability
that a coastal household will fall below the minimum consumption threshold level
of US $1.25 per capita per day. Forty-six percent of households are vulnerable to climatic
risk, while 54 percent of households are considered not vulnerable. The factors
affecting food consumption in rural households in Ben Tre Province are the households
other sources of income, education level of head of households, livelihood diversity index,
the number of contacts the household made to access credit, gender of the head of
the household and the number of young people working outside the household. Level of
education of the head of household marginally increases consumption risks. The average
number of floods that affect the household in the past 10 years reduces consumption
vulnerability while the average number of the floods that inundated the community in
the past ten years increases consumption vulnerability