Mekong Organics brings Regeneration International to Dông Tháp Province, Mekong Delta, Southern Vietnam

Mekong Organics (MO) is an organization based in Australia led by Dr Van Kien Nguyen, which supports small-scale farmers, small-medium enterprises, and community-led initiatives in the Mekong region with research and training in organic food production, certification, trade, nutrition and health for various stakeholders and communities.

MO is currently working in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta with the local government of Dông Tháp Province to develop ecological rice farming combined with wildlife conservation to help re-introduce the Red Crane in the Tràm Chim National Park, an iconic bird species in the region that suffered loss of habitat due to human activity and pollution from agrichemicals.

On January 13, 2024, in the context of an economic exchange program between the governments of Vietnam and Australia and MO’s drive to introduce outside expertise on ecological rice farming, Regeneration International was honoured to be invited by Mekong Organics and the People’s Committee of Dông Tháp Province, for the first international workshop between Australia and Vietnam on combining rice farming with wildlife conservation. With a discerning audience of Vietnamese Mekong Delta farmers, traders, researchers, and politicians, RI’s International Director, Dr André Leu, gave a keynote presentation on the Systems of Rice Intensification and the power of Regenerative Agriculture to overtake conventional methods by converting greenhouse gas emissions into soil fertility, securing higher yields under organic production, remaining cost-effective, and building resiliency to pests, diseases, and climate extremes.

Ecological broadcast on national TV:

RI’s trip in Vietnam with Mekong Organics is being documented via interviews and video recordings by our roving video reporter and Eurasia Coordinator Oliver Gardiner for RI’s media content and the People’s Food Summit 2024. The trip will continue throughout January with an Australia-Vietnam Organic Agriculture Trade and Investment at the University of Social Sciences in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), research and farmer-led field trips to projects and an Australia-Vietnam Organic Agriculture Trade and Invesment Forum in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi. You can follow up on our trip to Vietnam in our next newsletter, where we will reveal how a few pioneering Vietnam farmers use clever innovations to create new revenue streams with combined rice/duck/fish/prawn production systems and simple money-earning solutions to prevent slash and burning practices.