DOCSLIB.ORG

The Contribution of International Vegetable Breeding to Private Seed Companies in India

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Contribution of International Vegetable Breeding to Private Seed Companies in India Genet Resour Crop Evol (2017) 64:1037–1049 DOI 10.1007/s10722-016-0423-y RESEARCH ARTICLE The contribution of international vegetable breeding to private seed companies in India Pepijn Schreinemachers . Kilaru Purna Chandra Rao . Warwick Easdown . Peter Hanson . Sanjeet Kumar Received: 17 April 2016 / Accepted: 20 June 2016 / Published online: 1 July 2016 Ó The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Crop breeding research by international specific resistance traits. Still, international germ- agricultural research centers usually serves public plasm continued to be used in varietal development sector crop breeding, but does it still have a role when with 11.6 t (14 % of the total market) of hybrid tomato research and development have shifted to the private seed and 15.0 t (13 %) of hybrid chili pepper seed sold sector? This paper explores this question for vegeta- in 2014 containing international germplasm in its bles in India using data from 27 private companies and pedigree. We estimate that over half a million farmers 9 public organizations. We focus on tomato (Solanum use such seed. We conclude that for tomato and chili lycopersicum L.) and chili pepper (Capsicum annuum pepper, international breeding needs to focus on pre- L.)—two of India’s most important vegetables, and breeding research, capacity strengthening of smaller the role of international germplasm received from the seed companies, and the delivery of open-pollinated World Vegetable Center. Results show that as the role varieties for marginal environments. of the private sector in vegetable breeding increased, and with it the share of hybrids in the market, the role Keywords Crop breeding Á Resistance breeding Á of international agricultural research shifted from the Seed policy Á World Vegetable Center provision of ready-made varieties to the provision of P. Schreinemachers (&) Á P. Hanson Á S. Kumar World Vegetable Center, Introduction P.O. Box 42, Shanhua, Tainan 74199, Taiwan e-mail: [email protected] A good crop starts with good seed. Delivering good P. Hanson seed to millions of smallholder farmers in developing e-mail: [email protected] countries involves a complex chain of basic and S. Kumar applied research and contributions of public organi- e-mail: [email protected] zations, private seed companies, and a large network of distributors. The importance of good seed for K. P. C. Rao Independent Consultant, Hyderabad, Telangana, India smallholder farm incomes and food security is e-mail: [email protected] increasingly well understood (Access to Seeds Foun- dation 2016). The importance of international crop W. Easdown breeding research in supplying improved open-polli- World Vegetable Center, South Asia, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru, Hyderabad, Telangana 502324, India nated breeding lines to national agricultural research e-mail: [email protected] systems (NARS) in developing countries is also 123 1038 Genet Resour Crop Evol (2017) 64:1037–1049 widely recognized (Morris 2002; Lantican et al. 2005; importance of national and state seed corporations. Thiele et al. 2006; Brennan and Malabayabas 2011). Intellectual property rights protection for new plant Much less understood is the role of international varieties, introduced in 2001, further boosted private research in supplying breeding material to private crop breeding research (Kolady et al. 2012). Currently companies, especially in vegetables. This is a relevant there are about 850 seed companies (mostly seed line of inquiry, because after a wave of seed sector producers) operating in India in 2014, of which about reforms in developing countries in the 1990s, the 50 have capacity in crop breeding research (Reddy private seed sector is flourishing in many parts of the et al. 2014). world (Access to Seeds Foundation 2016). The World Vegetable Center is the only nonprofit One might argue that where private companies international agricultural research center with a dominate breeding research and seed production, worldwide mandate for vegetable research and devel- international crop breeding is no longer as important opment. The Center’s genebank contains more than because the investment by private companies in 8300 accessions each of tomato and pepper research and development dwarfs that of international (Schreinemachers et al. 2014; Ebert and Chou 2015). agricultural research centers. This paper therefore Its breeding programs focus on the development of explores the contribution of crop breeding research by improved open-pollinated vegetable lines suitable for international agricultural research centers to crops tropical and subtropical conditions. Genebank acces- dominated by the private sector. We use the case of sions are made available through standard material vegetables in India and focus on tomato (Solanum transfer agreements (SMTAs) while improved breed- lycopersicum L.) and chili pepper (Capsicum annuum ing lines are made available through material transfer L.), two of the country’s most important vegetables. agreements (MTAs) as public goods for global use. These are also crops in which hybrid seed production Over 22 thousand seed samples of tomato and over 33 has had a large impact, thus attracting much private thousand seed samples of pepper were supplied to sector investment. institutions 138 countries from 2001 to 2013 (Ebert In India, before seed sector liberalization in 1988, and Chou 2015; Reddy et al. 2015). For both species, crop breeding research was primarily done by the 80 % of the seed shipments were improved breeding institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural lines and 20 % were germplasm accessions (Ebert and Research (ICAR), such as the Indian Agricultural Chou 2015; Reddy et al. 2015). India has been the Research Institute (IARI), and state agricultural uni- main recipient, receiving 16 % of all pepper samples versities. Formal seed production was done by the distributed worldwide (Reddy et al. 2015). Lin et al. National Seeds Corporation, state seed corporations, (2013) mentioned that private companies received and a handful of private companies. Informal seed 64 % of the seed samples sent to India. The World production of open-pollinated varieties by farmers, Vegetable Center’s tomato and pepper breeding farmer associations and local companies was the main programs are located in Taiwan and seed shipments source of seed supply. Seed sector reform allowed to India are channeled through the Center’s genebank unrestricted import of vegetable seed (subject to tariffs and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources and phytosanitary regulations) and allowed foreign (NBPGR), New Delhi. Local breeding programs use and large domestic companies to enter seed production these samples as parent material in their own crop (Pray et al. 2001). improvement programs. The adoption of varieties by The reform led to rapid expansion of private seed farmers is therefore the result of a collaborative effort production for crops in which hybrid seed production between international agricultural research, national was possible, such as cotton, pearl millet, sorghum, agricultural systems, and seed companies. maize and many vegetables (Morris et al. 1998; Pray et al. 2001; Kolady et al. 2012), and slower but steady growth in private seed production of other crops such Materials and methods as rice and wheat (Tripp and Pal 2001; Matuschke et al. 2007; Spielman et al. 2013). For vegetables, the The main data for this study come from a survey of reform led to rapid growth in private sector research vegetable seed producers in India. We constructed a and development (R&D) and a parallel demise in the list of all seed companies and public sector 123 Genet Resour Crop Evol (2017) 64:1037–1049 1039 organizations involved in tomato and pepper breeding disaggregated sales data for all varieties were provided and seed production by combining own contacts with by 6 tomato and 8 chili pepper producers. Jointly, information from the Asia and Pacific Seed Associa- these companies accounted for about a third of the tion and seed catalogues. The list was gradually total hybrid seed market. In the analysis we assumed refined after visiting each company and asking what that seed producers who did not provide data on the other companies and institutions were involved in volume of seed sales containing World Vegetable Cen- breeding research on these crops. The final list had 27 ter germplasm did not use the germplasm. private companies and 9 public sector organizations. Quantitative data were collected using a structured questionnaire survey eliciting information on seed Results sales of tomato and pepper varieties released since 1988 and for which sales were at least 0.2 t/year. Data Varieties containing international germplasm were collected from November 2014 to May 2015. The basic method of data collection is similar to that of Of the 27 private seed companies that provided data, 9 previous studies (e.g. Morris 2002; Thiele et al. 2006). had global operations (working on several continents), However, data collection from private companies is 13 had regional operations across South Asia, and 5 had much more difficult than from public sector organi- operations mainly in India. Most private companies zations because companies consider their sales data were relatively young, with 58 % founded after 1988 confidential. Each seed producer was therefore visited and 38 % founded after 2000. The nine public sector in person to explain
Load more

Recommended publications
  • AVRDC - the World Vegetable Center Published by AVRDC – the World Vegetable Center P.O
    2014-2016 MEDIUM-TERM PLAN AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center Published by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center P.O. Box 42 Shanhua, Tainan 74199 Taiwan T +886 6 583 7801 F +886 6 583 0009 E [email protected] avrdc.org AVRDC Publication: 14-776 ISBN 92-9058-204-9 Editor: Maureen Mecozzi Graphic Design: Amy Chen Publishing Team: Kathy Chen, Vanna Liu, Lu Shiu-luan Photos: AVRDC Image Archive © 2014 AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Please feel free to quote or reproduce materials from this report. AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center requests acknowledgement and a copy of the publication or website where the citation or material appears. Suggested citation AVRDC. 2014. 2014-2016 Medium-term Plan. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center. Shanhua, Taiwan. Publication 14-776. 123 p. CONTENTS Foreword 2 Strategic Organization 5 Locations (Map) 6 Four themes 8 Global Action 11 East and Southeast Asia 12 South Asia 16 West and Central Africa 21 Eastern and Southern Africa 26 Oceania 31 Central Asia and the Caucasus 33 The Center’s Projects 37 Research and Development Output Targets 44 2014-2016 Germplasm 46 Breeding 64 Production 77 Consumption 88 Global Support 105 Administrative Services 106 Biometrics 106 Communications and Information 107 Financial Services 108 Food and Dormitory Services 108 Global Technology Dissemination 109 Grants and Partnership Development 110 Human Resources 111 Information Technology Services 111 Internal Audit 112 Technical Services Office 112 Budget 115 Staff 120 Acronyms and Abbreviations 123 Bringing women to the forefront of agricultural research and development FOREWORD Achieving genuine food security is no longer a matter of making enough food available, but also making enough of the right kind of wholesome food available.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to World Vegetable Center (Worldveg)
    Introduction to World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) Fenton D. Beed Regional Director, World Vegetable Center Module 2 , International Vegetable Training Course Vegetables: from Harvest to Table 3rd – 28th October World Vegetable Center and Kasetsart University Vegetables for health and prosperity! . Founded in 1971 as AVRDC Alleviate poverty and malnutrition through . Research to promote development - nonprofit increased production and . Research outputs - global public goods consumption of health- promoting vegetables . Profitable value webs – affordable year round Food and nutritional security through vegetables deficiency in calories and = HUNGER 800 million proteins underweight deficiency in vitamins and = MICRONUTRIENT 2 billion minerals DEFICIENCY malnourished 2 billion overweight excess = IMBALANCED 0.6 billion obese calories CONSUMPTION FAO; IFAD; WFP, 2012; Bereuter and Glickman, 2015: Healthy Food for a Healthy World Food and nutritional security through vegetables deficiency in • Every year > 3M children die due to mal-nutrition calories and = HUNGER 900 million proteins • Every day 400 mothers die in childbirth due to iron deficiencyunderweight deficiency in • Every day 1400 children go blind due to Vitamin A deficiency vitamins and = MICRONUTRIENT 2 billion minerals • First 1000 days affects DEFICIENCYphysical and mental developmentmalnourished • Asia and Africa lose 11% of GNP each year due to 2poor billion nutrition overweight excess = IMBALANCED 0.6 billion obese calories • Rates of diabetes increasingCONSUMPTION fastest in developing countries FAO; IFAD; WFP, 2012; Bereuter and Glickman, 2015: Healthy Food for a Healthy World (bio)fortification…. … or more diverse diets? Iodization ? iron and zinc biofortification ? vitamin supplements ? Vegetables WIN (women, income, nutrition) 1. empowerment of women to manage small rural and urban plots 2. high value inputs and outputs (fresh and processed) 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Audited Financial Statements Natural Resources
    The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIP) is a research-for-development organization with a focus on potato, sweetpotato, and Andean roots and tubers. CIP is dedicated to delivering sustainable science-based solutions to the pressing world issues of hunger, poverty, gender equity, climate A member of the change and the preservation of our Earth’s fragile biodiversity and CGIAR Consortium Audited Financial Statements natural resources. www.cipotato.org and Complementary Information CIP is a member of CGIAR. For the year ended December 31, 2014 CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by the 15 research centers who are A member of the members of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds CGIAR Consortium of partner organizations. www.cgiar.org Financial Statements For the year ended 31 December 2014 CENTER POTATO INTERNATIONAL International Potato Center Audited Financial Statements December 31, 2014 International Potato Center for year ending December 31, 2014 and 2013 International Potato Center Audited Financial Statements December 31, 2014 The International Potato Center (known by its S anish acronym, CIP) is a research-for-develo ment organi)ation with a focus on otato, sweet otato, and Andean roots and tubers. CIP is dedicated to delivering sustainable science-based solutions to the ressing world issues of hunger, overty, gender e-uality climate change and the reservation of our .arth/s fragile biodiversity and natural resources. Our Vision is roots and tubers im roving the lives of the oor. Our Mission is to work with artners to achieve food security, well-being, and gender e-uity for oor eo le in root and tuber farming and food systems in the develo ing world.
    [Show full text]
  • FAO Rome Diversity for Development Alliance Is Fostering a Revolution in Diets for Good Health!
    AVRDC and the FAO Rome Diversity for Development Alliance is Fostering a Revolution in Diets for Good Health! Holmer Ebert Hughes Less visible but yet vital for human health: Nutrient-dense indigenous vegetables and their need for urgent promotion in balanced diets By J.D.H. Keatinge, R.J. Holmer, A.W. Ebert and J d’A. Hughes AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center Malnutrition and mortality – Southeast Asia Brunei Darussalam 7 Under-five mortality rate 2010 (per 1,000 live births) Singapore 3 Thailand Viet Nam 13 23 Cambodia Non- 51 communicable Philippines diseases cause 29 more than 60% of Indonesia 35 deaths Myanmar 66 Major risk factors Lao PDR 54 Poor diet and physical inactivity Tobacco Malaysia Alcohol 6 United Nations Children’s Fund 2011. Levels and Trends in Child Mortality. www.avrdc.org Asian vegetables Slide 3 (11/2011) Photo source: http://www.evergreenseeds.com/vegetableseeds.html Share of vegetable consump6on in Asia (min. 200 g/day/person) S SE Eastern Asia Western Asia Central Asia Asia Asia 38 23 23 9 8 715 g/day 423 g/day 422 g/day 171 144 g/day g/day Other 71% 87% 56% 59% 88% veg 36% 29% 14% Tomatoes 7% 4% 5% 8% 12% 15% 8% Onion Data source” FAOSTAT 2010 Slide 4 (11/2011) Indigenous nutrient-dense vegetables can be used to overcome malnutrition cheaply and permanently Over 5000 varieties of indigenous vegetables are maintained at AVRDC Clitoria ternata: A multipurpose use IV Hibiscus sabdariffa: A very good source of vitamin C Leaves Nutrition Flowers Medicine Medicine Cosmetics Stem Fuel wood Bark Pulp Dyes Paper Medicine Gum Pods Medicine Nutrition Glue Medicine Seeds Root Water purification sMedicine Medicine Condiment Oil Drumstick tree (Moringa oleifera) Moringa drouhardii Moringa oleifera Moringa stenopetala Moringa peregrina 7 Slide 7 (RYY, 17-18 Jan 2012) Nutrients in four Moringa species 100 g fresh mature leaves Specie DM Prot.
    [Show full text]
  • JR Annual Report 2014-JUL07.Indd
    d o o ih vel LivelihoodLi d andan n o iti tr u , NNutrition ty ri u CIP -SecSecurity Annual d Report Cross-Cutting Efforts Optimize Food- A memberr ofof the CGIAR ConsortiumConsororrtrtirtium The International Potato Center (known by its Spanish acronymm CIP) is a research-for-developmpment organization with a focus onn potato,p sweetpotato, and Andeann rootsr and A member of the tubers. CIP is dedicateded to delivering CGIAR Consortium sustainable science-be-based solutions to the pressing worldwo issues of hunger, povertyerty, gender equity, climate chanange and the preservation of our Earth’sEar fragile biodiversity and naturaral resources. www.cipotato.orgwww CIP is a member of CGIAR. Science for a food-secure future CGIAR is a global agriculture research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by the 15 research centers who are members of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. Abridged Annual Report. www.cgiar.org Full Annual Report 2014 available online at 2014 www.cipotato.org 2014 Av. La Molina 1895, La Molina • Apartado 1558, Lima 12, Perú • www.cipotato.org Cross-Cutting Eff orts Optimize Food Security, Nutrition and Livelihood Content International Potato Center | Annual Report 2014 © 2015, International Potato Center ISSN 0256-6311 DOI: 10.4160/02566311/2014 1 Board Chair Letter Hecho el Depósito Legal en la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú N° 2005-9640 2 Director General’s Foreword Readers are encouraged to quote or reproduce material from this 3 Gender report. As copyright holder CIP requests acknowledgement and a copy of the publication where the citation or material appears.
    [Show full text]
  • Asia-Pacific Symposium on Molecular Breeding
    PROCEEDINGS APAARI-AVRDC-COA Asia-Pacific Symposium on Molecular Breeding 1-3 October 2013 EDITORS Roland Schafleitner Head of Molecular Genetics, AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center Jawahir L. Karihaloo Coordinator, Asia-Pacific Consortium on Agricultural Biotechnology (APCoAB), Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) ORGANIZERS AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) FUNDING Council of Agriculture (COA), Taiwan PUBLISHERS AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) Prosperity for the poor and health for all AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center is the leading international nonprofit research and development institute committed to alleviating poverty and malnutrition in the developing world through the increased production and consumption of nutritious and health-promoting vegetables. AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center P.O. Box 42 Shanhua, Tainan 74199 TAIWAN Tel : +886 6 583 7801 Fax : +886 6 583 0009 Email : [email protected] Web : avrdc.org AVRDC Publication: 13-772 ISBN 92-9058-202-2 Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) 4th Floor, FAO RAP Annex Building C/o ICRISAT 202/1 Larn Luang Road National Agricultural Science Center Complex Pomprab Sattrupai District Dev Prakash Shastri Marg Bangkok 10100 New Delhi-110012 THAILAND INDIA Tel : + 66 2 282 2918 Tel: +91 11 32472305, +91 11 65437870 Fax : + 66 2 282 2919 Fax: +91 11 25843243 Web : www.apaari.org www.apcoab.org This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Suggested citation AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center and Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI).
    [Show full text]
  • A Strong, Thriving Vegetable Sector Is Vital for Human Such As Tomato, Pepper, Chili, Onion, Cabbage, and Cucurbits
    Research & Development Working for Impact The research and development work at the Center focuses on The world’s largest collection of vegetable germplasm developing improved varieties of vegetables and safe production The Center maintains the largest and most diverse public collection practices, reducing postharvest losses, and improving the of vegetable germplasm in the world. It contains more than 61,000 nutritional value of vegetables. accessions of 440 different species collected from 156 countries. Since its founding, the Center has distributed more than 590,000 The Center’s crop portfolio includes five groups of globally seed samples to researchers in 200 countries. This has led to the Prosperity for the Poor, important vegetables: release of hundreds of varieties that are planted on millions of Health for All hectares in the developing world today. ū Solanaceous crops: tomato, sweet pepper, chili, eggplant ū Bulb alliums: onions, shallots, garlic New varieties and partnering with the private sector ū Crucifers: cabbage, Chinese cabbage Diseases are particularly important causes of crop loss in the tropics ū Cucurbits: cucumbers, pumpkins where most of the world’s poor live. The Center has made breeding Why vegetables? ū Legumes: mungbean, vegetable soybean breakthroughs to improve the yield and disease resistance of crops A strong, thriving vegetable sector is vital for human such as tomato, pepper, chili, onion, cabbage, and cucurbits. We and economic development. Worldwide, the production The Center also maintains a collection of more than 10,000 work in close partnership with the private seed sector to produce of vegetables has doubled over the past 25 years.
    [Show full text]
  • The World Vegetable Center Original Scientific Paper / Originalni Naučni Članak Ratar.Povrt
    Legume program at AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center 55 original scientific paper / originalni naučni članak Ratar.Povrt. 51:1 (2014) 55-61 Legume Improvement Program at AVRDC –The World Vegetable Center: www.nsseme.com/journal.html Impact and Future Prospects Ramakrishnan Nair • Roland Schafleitner • Warwick Easdown • Andreas Ebert • Peter Hanson • Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes • John Donough Heber Keatinge received: 11 February 2014, accepted: 25 March 2014 published online: 10 June 2014 © 2014 IFVC doi:10.5937/ratpov51-5488 Summary: Legume breeding at AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center currently focuses on two crops: mungbean (Vigna radiata [L.] Wilzcek var. radiata) and vegetable soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merrill). High yielding, short duration mungbean varieties bred by AVRDC in conjunction with 29 national partners across Asia revolutionized the industry over the last two decades and increased global production by more than a third. New sources of resistance to mungbean yellow mosaic disease have been identified in related species such as black gram (Vigna mungo [L.] Hepper) and are being introgressed into elite mungbean lines. Improving protein quality by transferring high methionine and bruchid resistance traits from black gram is in progress. Selection of local land races and transfer of desirable traits from grain soybean are being used to develop vegetable soybean with higher pod yield, improved seed size and colour, higher sugar content, basmati flavour, less sensitive to photoperiod and temperature. Key words: Asia, breeding, impact, legumes, mungbeans, vegetable soybeans, vigna Introduction continents. Currently, mungbean is cultivated on more than 6 million hectares worldwide and Globally, the need for legume improvement global annual production is 3 million tonnes (Nair programs was recognised during the 1970s not et al.
    [Show full text]
  • Growing Where There's Too Much Water
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8 March 2012 Contact: Maureen Mecozzi, [email protected], +886-06-583-7801 ext 572 Growing where there’s too much water Think “water and agriculture” and it’s likely you’ll picture a dry, parched landscape, stunted crops and destitute farmers. In places like Bangladesh, it’s a different scenario. There, vegetable farmers must contend with too much rain in summer, and thus lose an important opportunity to produce tomatoes and other high value vegetables when prices are highest. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), an international agricultural research institute, recently conducted training courses in conjunction with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to help farmers teach each other some other low-cost but effective methods for keeping water at bay. In an April 2012 training of trainers workshop in Jessore, 34 participants learned how to build simple rain shelters from bamboo poles, jute rope and plastic sheeting to protect their crops from the damaging effect of heavy rains. The strong but lightweight shelters divert the showers, ensuring tomato flowers will not fall off or young fruit rot at critical points in tomato fruit development. AVRDC also has introduced grafting to 100 farmers in Jessore and Barishal. By using thin rubber tubes to join together tomato scions with disease-resistant eggplant rootstocks, farmers can plant tropical tomato in the hot-wet season and still produce a good crop. The eggplant line used as a rootstock has the added advantage of being flood-tolerant. Women’s groups are now investigating the possibility of establishing grafting nurseries to produce and sell grafted seedlings.
    [Show full text]
  • Avrdc-The World Vegetable Center's Present and Future Approaches To
    AVRDC-THE WORLD VEGETABLE CENTER’S PRESENT AND FUTURE APPROACHES TO GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES Manuel C. Palada, Jaw-Fen Wang, R. Srinivasan and Chin-hua Ma Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC)- The World Vegetable Center P.O. Box 42, Shanhua, Tainan 74199, Taiwan ROC ABSTRACT The mission of AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center is to reduce malnutrition and poverty in the developing countries through vegetable research and development. To accomplish this, AVRDC is building partnerships and mobilizing resources from private and public sectors to promote vegetable production and consumption in the developing world. Worldwide concern about food safety, health, environmental quality and sustainability in food production has mandated AVRDC to develop technologies that will contribute to the production of safe and nutritious vegetables in the tropics. These technologies are consistent with the objectives and goals of good agricultural practices (GAPs). AVRDC’s strategy for addressing this problem is to develop varieties resistant to major diseases and cultivate them with GAPs that will reduce fertilizer and pesticide use. Current strategic research on GAPs for vegetable production at AVRDC are discussed in this paper. Key words: GAP, vegetable production, Asia INTRODUCTION nutritional needs of the poor; 3) collect, characterize and conserve vegetable germplasm AVRDC’s Role and Mission resources for worldwide use; and 4) provide globally accessible, user-friendly and science- The Asian Vegetable Research and based appropriate
    [Show full text]
  • ASEAN-AVRDC Regional Network for Vegetable Research and Development (AARNET)
    ASEAN-AVRDC Regional Network for Vegetable Research and Development (AARNET) Expert Consultation on Vegetable Research and Development Priorities in Southeast Asia 21 March 2013, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand Summary Report 1 Introduction More than 50 participants attended the Expert Consultation on Vegetable Research and Development Priorities in Southeast Asia on 21 March 2013 at Kasetsart University, Bangkok, organized by the ASEAN-AVRDC Regional Network for Vegetable Research and Development (AARNET) with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Taiwan. AARNET Steering Committee members from the 10 ASEAN member states presented their needs for vegetable research and development to scientists from AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ; Germany), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Kasetsart University (Thailand), Mahidol University (Thailand), the Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station (Taiwan), and the University of Freiburg (Germany) to identify and prioritize common concerns, research gaps and required development efforts. The detailed program as well as the list of participants are attached as an Annex. List of priority areas for vegetable research and development During two working group sessions the following priority areas for vegetable research and development were discussed and identified: Working group 1 (Germplasm conservation, gene-mining and plant breeding): 1. To promote conservation and sustainable utilization of underutilized vegetables o Involvement of farmers and NGOs in on-farm and in-situ preservation: . benefits and incentives to farmers to be considered by national and local governments, NGOs, etc. (payment for environmental services, recognition and benefits for farmers conserving biodiversity) o Documentation of indigenous knowledge .
    [Show full text]
  • [Title] Tomato Grafting Creates Economic
    [Title] Tomato grafting creates economic opportunities for farmers in Vietnam [Summary] Tomato farmers in Southeast Asia can lose 100% of their crops due to diseases and wet soils AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center researched grafting as a possible solution to these constraints through a series of projects funded by DFID and other donors in the early 1990s DFID also supported the establishment of an International Bacterial Wilt Symposium in 1992 In 2002, tomato grafting was disseminated in Vietnam In 2012, AVRDC conducted an impact evaluation of the technology in Vietnam, 10 years after the technique was introduced Results of the evaluation show tomato grafting helps farmers overcome production constraints, increase yield and generate more income [Introduction] Waterlogged soils and bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum have long been a problem for tomato producers in Vietnam’s hot, wet climate, sometimes leading to 100% yield loss. Tomato grafting—combining a bacterial wilt-resistant, flood-tolerant rootstock with a high-yielding tomato scion—provides farmers with a means to overcome these constraints. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center began tomato grafting experiments in 1992, and in the mid-1990s incorporated grafting lessons into training courses held at its headquarters in Taiwan. The technique was introduced in northern and southern Vietnam after several scientists from the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute (FAVRI) and the Potato, Vegetable and Flower Research Center (PVFC) attended an AVRDC training course in 2002. Both partners evaluated the technique in their respective institutes and disseminated it to farmers through television programs, brochures, guides and demonstrations. Adoption was rapid in Lam Dong province in the south, where the number of farmers using grafted tomato began to steadily increase after 2002.
    [Show full text]