Dr. Thi Hoa Pham
Specialist, Lam Dong Crop Production and Plant Protection Sub-Department, Lam Dong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, VietNam
Dr. Pham has over 12 years experience working as a specialist at Lam Dong Crop Production. Her work includes forest health surveillance, data and sample collection, pesticide trials and identification of nematodes and fungi that cause forest disease.
She also plays an important role in reducing VietNam’s reliance on chemical fertilizers that potentially poison the soil and give rise to a proliferation of pathogens. Dr. Pham works directly with farmers urging them to apply bio-pesticides that work in harmony with beneficial and indigenous soil organisms.
Dr. Pham has also worked as a Deputy Director on an agricultural product quality safety enhancement program funded by the Asian Development Bank and as a researcher at the Lam Dong Forest Research Center, Viet Nam National Forest Institute. After completing a Master in Forestry Science at the University of Melbourne with the support of an AUSAID scholarship, Dr. Pham went on to gain her PhD at the Zhejiang University in China, furthering her technical knowledge and gaining experience working in international contexts. Dr Pham’s research focus is on pine disease. She aspires to find soltions to control pine wilt nematodes which have damaged pine plantations in Lam Đồng for more than 2 decades and by doing so contribute to improved agricultural production in VietNam.
From The GEAReD Blog …
Vietnam: Researching Agricultural Supply Chains
In April 2020 the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) announced an Alumni Research Support Facility supporting ACIAR Alumni to quickly respond to vulnerabilities in agricultural systems exposed by the pandemic. Dr Hoa Pham from Vietnam was one of forty to receive funding in the first round.
ACIAR swiftly responded to COVID19 by supporting researchers through the Alumni Research Support Facility. This short-term response enabled researchers to continue important pandemic relevant work.
In Lam Dong Province, Vietnam, the pandemic disrupted agricultural supply chains. ACIAR funded Dr Thi Hoa Pham's research to support vulnerable people and their businesses by identifying new strategies and providing recommendations to policymakers.
A Helping Hand
Inspiring mentor-mentee relationships are fast becoming a hallmark of our Meryl Williams Fellowships. Mentor and social scientist Dr. Nozomi Kawarazuka, based in Hanoi, and Meryl Williams Fellow and mentee Pham Thi Hoa, working in rural Vietnam, explain that the benefits flow in both directions.