Higher Education for Sustainable Agriculture - The Example of Vietnam

I am Bich-Ngoc Nguyen, a doctoral student at the Department of Communication and Engagement in Agricultural, Nutritional and Environmental Sciences. I did my Master Program in Development Studies and completed it with a Master Thesis titled “Aspirations of Young Women in Agribusiness: A Case Study in Central Highland, Vietnam”. In my research, I found out that many of them started their own business in Agriculture with a high passion and overcame different types of difficulties. In which, one of the first challenges they faced is lacking of knowledge and skills in this field, especially when they want to pursue/support sustainable agricultural methods. I realize that education is an essential foundation and also a big push for us to achieve sustainability in different aspects of life. It urged me to choose a research topic related to Higher Education for Sustainable Development as my PhD research.

Agriculture is a vital sector in our life, especially in developing countries. However, agriculture is currently under enormous pressure due to the world population growth, urbanization, land degradation, climate change… Therefore, it is a big challenge for agricultural sector to supply adequate, safe and nutritious food to all, and at the same time, to meet the requirements of industrial use, without depleting available land, water and negative impacts on biodiversity resources.

In this situation, education has been considered as the most powerful equipment to prepare people to cope with and find solutions for our sustainability issues.

This video will expose the research statement, research questions and research methodology of my PhD research: