Climate Change, Perceptions and the Heterogeneity of Adaptation and Rice Productivity: Evidence from Indonesian Villages

This paper examines how change in rainfall patterns induces autonomous adaptation of farmers and affects their rice production. Based on recently collected household data from seven provinces in Indonesia, the analysis clearly demonstrate delays in the onset of rainy season and increased uncertainty in rainfall patterns in the region. Farmers make sequential decisions: adjusting planting timing in response to delays in the onset of rainy season while changing crop variety responding to delays in the end of the previous year’s rainy season. In the case of rice production, (i) delay in the onset significantly decreases land productivity growth in rice production; one month delay offsets the average growth observed in 1999-2007, and (ii) though irrigation share significantly explains the growth of land productivity, delayed onset increasingly constrains the role of irrigation.