ISHS Acta Horticulturae 495: WCHR - World Conference on Horticultural Research
AVRDC'S GLOBAL VEGETABLE NETWORK STRATEGIES |
| Authors: | S.C.S. Tsou, S. Shanmugasundaram |
| Abstract:
More than 2 billion people worldwide, most of them living in poorer countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are malnourished and have micronutrient deficiency. Vitamin A, iron and iodine deficiency in the diet is predominant and it exceeds protein-calorie malnutrition. Micronutrient deficiencies in the diet result in improper physical and mental development in children as well as adults which is responsible for lower productivity and inferior quality of life. Population density and population growth in most developing countries are high. Although these countries are predominantly agrarian in nature, the farm size is generally small, especially in Asia. Therefore, intensive cultivation and improved productivity per unit area is the key to rural economic and social development. Vegetables are labour-intensive crops. Processing of vegetable crops, for value addition, creates additional job opportunities, especially for women in the rural sector. Vegetables and vegetable legumes are rich in vitamins, minerals, plant proteins and fibre which complement well with cereals in enhancing the nutritive value for a balanced diet. In spite of all the above advantages, resources allocated for research on vegetables have been limited. These limited resources should be used efficiently to accomplish priority objectives. AVRDC's strategy to best achieve the above goal is to consolidate the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) into a collaborative mode so that they can cooperate with each other for mutual benefit. Therefore, the basic strategies of the AVRDC-catalysed vegetable research networks are as follows:
The essential ingredients for the success of the networks are:
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