Mekong Organics received a travel grant from Rotary Club of Hall (in Canberra, ACT Australia) for 6 Vietnamese organic growers in the South of Vietnam to visit Australian Organic Farmers and Industry
In April 2017, Dr Van Kien Nguyen and Dr Daniel Gifillan visited farmers in the Mekong Delta to develop a concept note for seeking grants to support 6 farmers (who are in transition of moving from conventional to organic farming) to visit Australia for 10 days. The aim of this project is to develop a link between Australian organic farmers and Vietnamese organic growers and support Vietnamese farmers to learn organic farming practices, marketing, certification, and networking. The concept note was submitted to Canberra Rotary Club and potentially to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Finally, the Rotary Club of Hall in Canberra ACT Australia decided to fund for six farmers to visit Australia this year.
Mekong Organics and Organic Agriculture Association are developing a plan for this trip in 2019. We expected that farmers will learn new skills and knowledge from Australia and return to develop their organic farm in a sustainable way.
Early this year, Mekong Organics and Organic Agriculture Association (OAA) hosted a trip for two academic researchers from An Giang University to visit Australian Organic Industry in ACT, NSW, VIC and SA.