The Mekong River Delta (MRD) suffers from the impacts of high climate variability, which increases the likelihood of both droughts and floods. Some of the major impacts of droughts occur in provinces close to the sea, leading to water shortages for farmers in these rural areas. To address this, we use a validated economic game, the “Irrigation Game,” to deliver a self-contained piece of work based on economic decision-making. Irrigation games are particularly well suited to this context, as they model the problems faced by people who must engage in communal action. Farmers need to consider the costs and benefits of maintaining water canals, both for themselves and for others. The objective of our study is to provide insights into how to achieve a fair division of costs among farmers using different mechanisms, such as leadership advice and cheap talk. The first stage of this project we analyse data from an economic laboratory setting. For this stage, we will use a population of students who are mainly from the MRD and have varying degrees of experience with farming. Although previous research has shown that few students expect to return to farming, many are seeking careers in the agriculture sector, which makes them a suitable target group for the first phase of our economic experiment. The laboratory experiment will be conducted in person and will consist of four variations: (1) the original irrigation game (no advice, no cheap talk), (2) the game with droughts, (3) the game with cheap talk and droughts, and (3) the game with advice and droughts. This project builds on our previous research on farming and floods in the MRD, conducted under UKRI GCRF funding.

From a policy perspective, there would be substantial benefits to implementing measures that enhance collaboration among stakeholders to reduce the risks of environmental change and environmental hazards in Asia, particularly given the growing threats of climate change in the region. For instance, there is often limited consideration of the potential reductions in costs and increases in benefits associated with mitigating these risks through public policy campaigns at the local level, which could have positive effects both before and after periods of drought or flooding (as observed in the MRD). However, the impact of these risks on collaboration among farmers has not yet been examined. From a local perspective and based on prior work by researchers in the area, there is strong demand for low-cost, high-impact solutions that foster collaboration and engage both farmers and policymakers (including village leaders) at the village level. For this reason, and because this research question has not previously been explored in this part of the world, we propose to develop and test a game designed to examine the dynamics underlying collaboration in water use.