Mekon Delta Case Study: Agricultural transformation in developing countries under contexts of urbanization and climate change

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Welcome to Can Tho University

Welcome to Can Tho University

For the month of August the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute (MDI) is hosting a summer school case study on Agricultural transformation in developing countries under contexts of urbanization and climate change- the case of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, for the International Master of Science in Rural Development (IMRD) programme from Ghent University.  Wageningen’s Rural Sociology Group is involved in the IMRD programme and as a result, I was able to come and participate in a supportive capacity for the first two weeks.

Case Study Participants at Can Tho University

Case Study Participants at Can Tho University

About the Mekong Delta Development Research Institute (MDI)

MDI is an interdisciplinary organization of Can Tho University (Can Tho, Vietnam). It was established in 2005 from the Mekong Delta Farming Systems Research and Development Institute. MDI has the mission to “improve life quality of rural people and ensure socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the Mekong Delta through collaborative education, research and development activities”. It also has four research programmes:

  • Food security
  • Agriculture resources management
  • Rural development
  • Climate change, adaptation and mitigation.
Visiting a collection of farming and aquaculture tools

Visiting a collection of farming and aquaculture tools

Boating on the Mekong River

Boating on the Mekong River

About the Case

The case study is being conducted by 8 students (from Brazil, Cameroon, Serbia, Germany, Turkey, and Mexico) who are part of the IMRD programme and 8 students from MDI. The students have been mixed into smaller groups to explore the following topics:

  • The relationships between policies, institutional arrangements and community livelihoods
  • Community adaptation to climate change
  • Values chains and models of production in the Mekong Delta
  • Household resources and trends

The groups are supported by local professors who act as facilitators.

Leaning about the Mekong Delta

Leaning about the Mekong Delta

The first week of the course is devoted to learning about the Mekong Delta, about agricultural transformation in the students’ home countries, and also cultural sharing and learning.

The second week is focused on methodologies, including participatory rural appraisal and community rural appraisal.

In the third week students spend time in two field sites: one rural and one peri-urban.

Students working on the case study

Students working on the case study

They also get Sa Dec, Dong Thap province)

In the fourth week students finalise their individual reports and group presentations.

Having spent the week in the classroom, tomorrow we will visit different ecological zones and farming systems in the Mekong Delta (Soc Trang province- costal area). I will be sure to write up another blog to summarise this experience.

Students gave presentations about agricultural transformation in their home countries

Students gave presentations about agricultural transformation in their home countries

Students gave presentations about agricultural transformation in their home countries

Students gave presentations about agricultural transformation in their home countries

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And we found time to share some delicious Vietnamese food and lots of laughs.

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About FoodGovernance

Jessica Duncan is Associate Professor in Rural Sociology at Wageningen University (the Netherlands). She holds a PhD in Food Policy from City University London (2014). Jessica’s main research focus concerns the practices and politics of participation in food policy processes, particularly the relationships (formal and non-formal) between governance organizations, systems of food provisioning, the environment, and the actors engaged in and across these spaces. More specifically, she maps the diverse ways that actors participate in policy-making processes, analysing how the resulting policies are shaped, implemented, challenged, and resisted, and she theorizes about what this means for socio-ecological transformation. Participation and engagement is at the core of her approach. In turn, she is active in a broad range of local, national and international initiatives with the aim of better understanding participation processes with a view towards transitioning to just and sustainable food systems. She is involved in several research projects including ROBUST, HortEco & SHEALTHY. Jessica is published regularly in academic journals. She recently co-edited the Handbook on Sustainable and Regenerative Food Systems (2020). Her other books include Food Security Governance: Civil society participation in the Committee on World Food Security (2015) and an edited volume called Sustainable food futures: Multidisciplinary solutions (2017). Jessica has received several awards for her teaching and in 2017 she was awarded Teacher of the Year for Wageningen University (shortlisted again in 2018 and 2019, longlisted in 2020). With the funds she has received for these awards she launched a story-telling workshop for students and faculty, with storytelling trainer, Emma Holmes. Jessica is on the Editorial Board of the journal Sociologia Ruralis and is an advisor to the Traditional Cultures Project (USA). She is a member of the Wageningen Young Academy and sits on the Sustainability Board of Experts at Wageningen University.

3 thoughts on “Mekon Delta Case Study: Agricultural transformation in developing countries under contexts of urbanization and climate change”

  2. Excellent practice by the group and that will be helpful to understand agricultural transformation process.

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