Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

Da Lat offers a wealth of new experiences

On our last day in Da Lat, an early hotel departure involved some classmates taking in the sights and sounds of the open-air market we had lived beside for the last few days, while others followed the health and wellness team with stretches and dancing in the hotel lobby.

Before heading to the airport, we began with a tour of a local supermarket newly built underground. Owned by a Thailand company, this supermarket was very similar to the supermarkets we have in Canada. This is new for the Vietnamese people, offering an alternative to the open air farmers markets. After overcoming the shock of fish heads on ice and live eels ready to purchase, the class started to compare prices from Vietnam to Canada.

It was interesting to discover, a litre of milk in Vietnam is approximately 1 Canadian dollar, a can of Coke is 25 cents and a one-litre bottle of water was 45 to 50 cents. As you can see, the pricing ratio between Coke and Milk is similar to Canada.

Following the supermarket adventure, we travelled to an artichoke farm. This farmer utilized every inch of his land even though PowerLine towers were installed on his land. His artichokes were being grown for tea.

Following this farm tour, we headed off to meet Loc Troi, the largest agricultural company in Vietnam with 4,000 employees working together to sell best practices, farm protection and production systems. What was interesting and different was that Loc Troi showcased their products by growing and executing test plots on their land. They invite farmers to come and view the plots, explain to them how the products and growing systems work, for the farmer to decide if they want to buy the product and which product would be the right fit -- a different take from the Canadian sales strategy. At this location they were also working on several new greenhouse projects including a new variety of pepper.

After lunch, and before a speedy ride to the airport, we quickly stopped in at a peppercorn farm. This was an interesting stop as many of us in the class didn't know how peppercorn was grown. Peppercorn is grown on vines and encouraged to grow upwards around a support pole, almost tree-like.

With goodbyes to our great tour guide and wonderful experience at Da Lat, it was off to the airport and on to Hanoi for our next step in this adventure. Upon our arrival we were meet by Danny our guide for the next four days. In this city of 8 million, traffic was even crazier than Ho Chi Minh City. Our first drive through the city showed a significant influence of French architecture from the period the French-occupied Vietnam.

The day ended with another amazing meal finishing the day explo‎ring our new surroundings.

Views: 293

Comment

You need to be a member of Ontario Agriculture to add comments!

Join Ontario Agriculture

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Barn Hero Alma Valdez: From Power Washing to Managing Barns

The breathtaking views of Guanajuato, Mexico, weren’t easy to leave behind, but Ma Merced Yebra knew her children deserved better than what she could provide them there. Although her husband went to the U.S. often to find work, he never saved enough to help his family back in Mexico. One day she decided to take a chance on a new life in the U.S., leaving behind her roots and venturing into the unknown with her four young children. “We didn’t have a lot growing up,” says Alma Valdez, her youngest daughter. “We were very poor. We lived in a house made of cardboard and metal sheets. We struggled a lot. My mother’s decision to leave her home in Guanajuato to come to the U.S. changed my life completely.” This journey led them to DeKalb, Ill. At the age of 8, Valdez turned all her focus to learning English — fast. Unfortunately, very few teachers knew Spanish at the time, so it made it difficult for her to learn. “I guess that’s where I started learning to not give up, to always try to se

Veterinary diagnostic scientists develop rapid tool to detect swine disease

Endemic animal health threats such as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) result in large losses of revenue to US producers every year and pose ongoing challenges to the biosecurity and bio-containment practices of the swine industry, according to a recent article from the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Mitigating these impacts through rapid detection, response and recovery requires a robust and coordinated diagnostic infrastructure with active monitoring and surveillance systems. With a $1 million Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant from NIFA, Iowa State University scientists and their collaborators at South Dakota State University, University of Minnesota, Kansas State University, Ohio Animal Disease and Diagnostic Laboratory, and Purdue University are leveraging the Swine Disease Reporting System (SDRS) to rapidly detect new strains of this PRRSV. They have launched a one-of-a-kind web-based tool called the SDRS BLAST To

Curating The Next Generation of Culinary Experts

On the east side of London’s diverse range of stores and restaurants, there’s a commercial kitchen providing a cultural experience difficult to replicate in this part of the province.  

U.S. South Identified as Highest Risk Region for North American Japanese Encephalitis Introduction

A Swine Health Information Center funded risk assessment has identified the U.S. south as the highest risk region for the potential introduction of Japanese encephalitis virus into North America.

Pork Producers Encouraged to Step Up Biosecurity as Spring Planting Activity Increases Potential for Movement of Viruses

The Director of Swine Health with Manitoba Pork suggests, as spring planting activity stirs up more dust increasing the potential for the movement of viruses, pork producers will need to pay particular attention to biosecurity.

Switch to the Mobile Optimized View

© 2024   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service