 I'm in Bacar Lau Kai in the northern mountainous regions of Vietnam. I'm Luke Nguyen and I'm here to see how Australia's aid program has been supporting the local people and improving their livelihoods. I'm also here to try all the delicious, wonderful foods, discover new produce and learn how they cook it. This busy, colourful and vibrant scene is Bacar's Sunday Market. It's about anything produced in this region of Vietnam you can find for sale right here. From livestock to beautiful fabrics. Some people spend the whole day travelling here just to sell their wares. I want to know more about where all these beautiful fresh vegetables come from. So I'm going to talk to Ms Min who is at the market to sell produce from her garden. This is your market? That's mine. This is cat's vegetable. This is local vegetable. Do you store these in your house or do you buy them? This is from the factory. Do you store them in your market? It's safe to eat. It's a bit spicy. Yes, it's spicy. Ms Min said she'd take me to visit her vegetable garden. Soon as she'd finished selling everything, so I thought I'd better lend a hand. This is your product? Thank you. Thank you very much. Hello. My first 10,000 dong. This is a lollipop. This is a lollipop. Everything she sells at her market is grown right here. How do you know how to do this? I have a government project. This is my business. This is my business. This is my business. So Ms Min and other local women have received training from the Australian government through the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research known as ACR. On how to grow safe healthy vegetables with minimal use of chemicals as well as how to develop and reach markets as far away as Hanoi. ACR does research for development style projects. A research for development project is one in which we take the issues that these farmers are facing, the problems that they're facing and come up with solutions that are practical, that work, and are that economic. Vegetable producers in Northwest Vietnam face many challenges such as rapidly changing markets, competition with lowland producers and regional producers, poor infrastructure and issues with transport logistics for getting product to market in good condition. To see where the vegetables are prepared for the wholesalers, we need to head to the women's cooperative. One cabbage won't make it to the dinner table in Hanoi though. This means picking this one for our lunch. I was so impressed with the range of fresh, safe vegetables already to be transported to Hanoi. There is a real demand in Vietnam these days for safe produce. All it took was to ensure the quality of the vegetables and then connect the growers to the buyers. The result is a higher profit for these hard-working women in Laokai and of course healthier food for Vietnam. I love this. This is a great co-op supported by the Australian government bringing them together but giving them ideas, marketing ideas, entrepreneurial ideas and giving them confidence that yes, we can do this ourselves and have a better profit. It's absolutely fantastic, loving it. Now the moment I've been waiting for. Time to try cooking with some of these fresh local produce. Miss Min showed me how to make a local specialty, cabbage rolls with minced pork. Then it was my turn. A rice noodle only found in this region of Baka. This purple coloured noodle is typically served in a broth. Now I don't think Miss Min had seen a fried like this before. Just smash it like that so it's flattened. I'm going to throw that in, cook the garlic. I want to get nice colour on that. Put in some of that gailan that's slightly blanched that goes in and that buffalo I cooked before that goes in too. Loves a lot of flavour. Elegant, that goes all over the dish. I love the produce of these northern mountainous areas. Very unique. Now I've told all of my chef friends about the wonderful fresh produce grown here in Baka. Grown safely and sustainably. We can't wait to bring it back together and cook up a feast. Thank you. See you later. So much fun.