A thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of science in Regional and Rural Development Planning

Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2018

Climate variability and change are among the greatest developmental challenges, particularly for the least developed countries. Cambodia, which is similar to many countries in the region, is especially susceptible to the effects of the climate change since a great part of the workforce is relying on agriculture and there are high rates of poverty. In some cases, people are likely to outflow to other places as one of the response actions to the climate impacts on their farming activities. As a consequence, the origin places would be somewhat facing the decline of agricultural productivity and the family problems because of stay- behind family members. The relationship between climate variability and migration, on the other hand, have a complex relationship which cannot be identified as the linear direction and it is always associated with other factors. Therefore, the study will I) To understand the local perception of climate variability, their experience of extreme events, and its impacts on their livelihoods; 2) To examine if climate variability and extreme events affect migration, and 3) To identify the possible response actions in response to the climate impacts in order to improve the situations of local livelihoods. The data were collected in Vihear Thum Sub-District ofKampong Cham Province, Cambodia and analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods (quotations, descriptive statistics, correlation, chi-square, and logistic regression). The result can be found that farmers were well aware of climate variability, as over 90 percent of farmer respondents perceived a variation of climate in the last 20 years. The main changes observed were the increased temperature, decreased precipitation, and other extreme events including droughts. With regards of climate variability and the poor water management, the local farmers had frequently experienced the crop failure over times. The smallholder farmers, on the other hand, were more likely to perceive the climate events than the medium and large farmers since many of them cultivated rain fed paddy and also had limited capacities to deal with the impacts. In the sub-district, people mainly have been migrating because their physiological needs were not fulfilled, based on Maslow' s Motivational Theory. Specifically, the variations of climate and problem of local water management had the impacts on the people farming activities; farmers, particularly the smallholder one, had to search for other ways to gratify their families' conditions. Migration is also one of the solutions for them to diversify their households' livelihoods. Many of them had sent their families members, particularly the young one, to work outside for seeking more income. Interestingly, several factors including farmers' ages, educational level, farm size, marital status, gender, and household size determined their choice to practice the specific response actions. More importantly, their challenges and needs in response to those impacts were mainly found to be the credit facilities, agricultural knowledge, and information/support from the government in disaster events. Ultimately, some essential recommendations in order to improve the local livelihoods were introduced which contained the diversification of livelihoods, improvement and maintenance of irrigation system, . government incentive programs to attract young people to engage in local agriculture, enhancing smallholder farmers to access credit facilities, as among other things.