Changing weather patterns force a farming community to look to new crops.

Kate Sheppard/Mother Jones

Greetings from Vietnam! I’m here for two weeks reporting on climate change adaptation, which can mean many things around the world. In the Thua Duc commune on Vietnam’s southwest coast, it’s meant the introduction of new watermelons.

Nhan and Chan Nguyen grow melons, peanuts, casava, and turnips here, on a patch of land off a dirt path shooting off of a dirt road that turns off from another dirt road. In other words, they’re pretty far out in the rural reaches of Vietnam. Their small, tubular green melons poke out between the vines, shining in the hot afternoon sun. Ditches of stagnant water running beside the field give off a pungent, boggy smell.

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