This international university and UF have agreed to start working together more.

UF representatives met with representatives from Vietnam’s An Giang University on Tuesday and agreed to collaborate more.

The group signed a memorandum of understanding, a formalized agreement to make applying for joint research funding and organizing exchange programs easier, said Kati Migliaccio, a UF hydrology and water conservation professor.

“It shows that we’re interested, and we’re going to try to make this successful from our side and from their side,” Migliaccio said.

Several years of discussion between UF’s department of agricultural and biological engineering and AGU started when former UF graduate student Tanh Nguyen, a Vietnam native, wrote his dissertation on Vietnam’s Mekong wetland, a valuable natural laboratory for observing food production methods, and provided data to AGU. Nguyen moved back to An Giang, where he teaches environmental engineering at AGU.

UF has continued studying the Mekong valley since Nguyen completed his dissertation in 2014. Migliaccio said the valley is special because it supports both aquaculture, which is the farming of aquatic organisms, and crop agriculture, depending on the season.

“There’s a lot of really unique ways they manage the land that we think would be interesting for our students to learn about,” she said.

Last year, UF professor Senthold Asseng traveled to Vietnam to meet with AGU faculty and observe crop production systems. He showed researchers how UF utilizes crop modeling, a system that monitors food production using technology to simulate crop growth.

Asseng said the relationship between both schools could help them secure grants and improve crop modeling research in both countries.

“Our idea is to have students from Vietnam spending some time (at UF), and maybe have some of our students over to Vietnam studying there as well,” Asseng said.

Contact Elliott Nasby at enasby@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @_ElohEl.