As three years of study at Charles Sturt University (CSU) draws to a close, a group of agricultural science students from the School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences at CSU at Wagga Wagga are reflecting on the international value of their course. Twenty-one Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) students travelled to southern Vietnam for a fortnight earlier this year. The group attended lectures at Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta region on fruit and pig production, as well as training and extension to local farmers. The students travelled into the field to look first-hand at farming systems on the Mekong Delta, and to observe the fishing industry and its sustainability challenges. They visited a range of dairy producers and looked at the extension program for small dairy producers, operated by the Dutch Lady Vietnam Milk Company. “I was surprised to learn that during the wet season from May to December, the Mekong River flows at 40 mega litres per second, flooding the delta region,” said Bachelor of Science (Agriculture) student, Mr David Gale. “However, during the dry season, the Mekong flows drop dramatically and salinity becomes a problem because salt water from the ocean comes back upstream. The visit to the Mekong Delta region was invaluable in exposing me to a different way of farming, but at the same time it showed me that similar problems, such as salinity and nutrient deficiencies, exist in both Australia and Vietnam.” The trip has prompted the CSU student to consider an Honours research project in an area related to farming systems in southern Vietnam.