Vietnam's diverse culture, rich history and natural beauty make it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and its charm was not lost on Dr Jason Condon when he visited in 2000 as a tourist.
So, six years later, when the opportunity arose to work in Vietnam, he embraced it.
Dr Condon grew up on a mixed wheat and sheep farm near Yerong Creek, a world away from Vietnam.
Armed with an interest in farming "but wanting to understand better how things work", Dr Condon attended La Trobe University in Melbourne, where his passion for soil science was ignited.
"It was there that I found an interest in soil. I couldn't believe there was so much to it," Dr Condon said.
An associate professor of soil science at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Dr Condon's initial work in Vietnam was related to nutrient cycling in aquatic systems near the coast, primarily the Mekong River Delta - it was the start of his career involving international research and development.
Here, he observed how damaging salt can be on the landscape and the challenges it poses to farmers.
"In 2006, I got an opportunity to work there for five months on a sabbatical program with my work at CSU," Dr Condon said.
"I worked at Can Tho University in the middle of the Mekong Delta, the main agricultural university in Vietnam. I made some great friendships there and have built on that experience ever since."
Following that initial visit, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) funded a project on the rice/prawn farming system, where his job was to reduce salinity and improve rice production.
I've been able to build programs to help maintain those relationships, but importantly, bring in other people so they get the opportunity to create relationships that lead to the next project.
- Dr Jason Condon
In the wet season, the influx of fresh water enables Vietnamese farmers to grow rice, but in the dry season, the land was turning saline due to a lack of fresh water to wash the salt away.
So, farmers turned to growing prawns in this saline environment.
Dr Condon said this resulted from the impacts of climate change, which is causing the seawater in the Delta to rise by about 12 millimetres a year, which leads to saline intrusion.
"Climate change first showed up as rainfall variability in a system which has a dry season and a wet season, and you could set your clock by when the rains come," he said.
"All of a sudden, that changed, and it became very unpredictable and had big impacts on agriculture.
"It led to changes in demand for water. More dams upstream meant less fresh water was coming down to the Delta.
"Because of this changing landscape, farmers further inland were seeing salinity for the first time, and they didn't know what it was or how to deal with it, so there was a need for capacity building to measure and monitor salinity."
Over the years, Dr Condon and his team have researched risk factors for sustainable production and nutrient management within those saline environments and screened salt-tolerant rice varieties.
"I now lead an ACIAR project that aims to find alternative crops to rice for farmers to grow in the dry season when fresh water is limited, salinity increases, and rice often fails," Dr Condon said.
"Using Australian technology, we have been able to grow profitable crops using much less water.
"From that project, we are now looking at the greenhouse gas emissions of the new farming systems we have tested."
Dr Condon believes "Research is all about relationships".
He said the not-for-profit organisation, The Crawford Fund, had been instrumental in helping him build these relationships with its dedication to international agricultural research and development.
"I've been able to build programs to help maintain those relationships, but importantly, bring in other people so they get the opportunity to create relationships that lead to the next project," Dr Condon said.
Additionally, he and his team have trained 145 people in four rural provinces impacted by soil salinity.
"Along the way, we have been training government staff and farmers to identify and manage soil constraints, how to adapt to new crop systems and use new equipment," he said.
"Capacity building is really important; it's not all about research."
Dr Condon has also taken CSU agricultural students to Vietnam so they could experience agriculture in South East Asia firsthand.
Dr Condon said that the most significant benefit to Australia from international work is the development of the project staff, who bring their expanded skills back to Australian ag.
"They are more experienced now, and the sharing of techniques and methodologies within our team allows us to take those learnings back to our own institutions and implement them," he said.
"I use research techniques here in Australia that I learned while working in Vietnam.
"We have aligned many CSU students to our projects; some of them have gone on to do Honours projects, Masters and PhD projects because of their Vietnam experience."
Having worked in Vietnam and Australia, Dr Condon says farmers in both countries face similar challenges.
"It is amazing how similar Vietnamese farmers are to Australian farmers," he said.
"Their main concerns are how the weather patterns have changed, how they keep using more inputs, but the yields are not always good, and how the production costs keep increasing, yet the prices they receive do not.
"Similarly, youth go to the city to get educated but don't return, so who will farm the land in the future?"
Dr Condon said the differences lay in the scale of operation.
"Vietnam is seeing that traditional small-scale farming operations are difficult to sustain and amalgamating farms to operate at scale is profitable; it's something we have already seen happen in Australia," he said.
"I would love to run a farmer exchange program so the two groups could experience each other's farming lives, see the similarities and learn from each other."
Dr Condon said the overseas research and development projects have created opportunities for young researchers, both Australian and Vietnamese, who are interested in agriculture and want careers in research.
"We give those people a job and the mentoring required so they can develop rapidly," he said.
"We facilitate the options for higher degree studies in Australia so that the capacity to be researcher leaders in the future is expanded.
"Providing opportunities for people to turbocharge their careers is very satisfying.
"I greatly value the friendships I have made in projects overseas; it's a really nice feeling to work together for so long, even though we are in different countries."
Dr Condon said the work he and his team have undertaken not only helps individual farming households but impacts hundreds of thousands of people because of Vietnam's densely populated rural land.
His current ACIAR project - Farmer Options for Crops Under Saline Conditions - explores alternate crops that could be grown in the dry season that save water, avoid or withstand salinity, be profitable and improve livelihoods, and create a more resilient farming landscape for food security.
"We have been able to halve the use of water without decreasing yield," he said.
"Instead of having risky rice crops which didn't make much money, they now have alternative crops, such as red beet/beetroot, that are delivering for the farmers."
Dr Condon highlighted a particularly satisfying outcome from this project.
"One of our field trial sites is farmed by an old man who had experienced failed rice crops in harsh, dry seasons prior to our involvement," he said.
"The trials we ran on this farm showed him that he could reliably grow new crops and make more money while using less water and time.
"He didn't have to find work off farm to support his family, and he could spend more time with his grandchildren, which is something that is very important to him.
"It's hard to put a price on that, but it is very valuable to that farmer."
Dr Condon's cultural experiences have extended to the odd dish made from local "delicacies".
"I've eaten a lot of strange things with farmers - every living creature is food in Vietnam, but I think we could learn a lot about hospitality from Vietnamese farmers; they are amazing hosts," he said.
When it comes to the major threats to soil health and food production systems in Australia and abroad, Dr Condon sees drought and flood as the most significant.
"We need to keep working to make our farming as efficient as we can be so that farmers' profit and longevity of our input supplies, including water, are maximised," he said.
"The nature of agriculture is sure to change, and who farms the land will change, but with a well-skilled and experienced research workforce supporting agriculture, we will be doing all we can to create food security into the future.
