Three Meryl Williams Fellows Successfully Publish Paper

Three Meryl Williams Fellows (MWF) have come together to publish a paper in the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, exploring the disruption to vegetable food systems during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Using a food systems approach, disruptions to and the resilience of vegetable food production and trade were analysed by the team which included MWF alumni Dr Phonevilay Sinavong, Dr Daovy Kongmanila and Chanthaly Syfongxay.  

Over 350 farmers, 60 wholesalers, 50 retailers and 70 consumers were involved in the research. Findings revealed how the significant impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were managed  with traditional, resilient farming systems that could adapt to novel disruptions in the short term.  

 The Australian Centre of International Agricultural Research (ACAIR) supported this research and paper through the Alumni Research Support Facility (ARSF), a program initiated as a swift response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to enable research projects that build resilience and respond to the pandemic’s challenges to agriculture systems in ACIAR partner countries. It's fantastic to see the ARSF support manifested in the outcomes of this research paper.  

 To read the paper in its entirety you can head to the following link : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sjtg.12447