By David Chang

While the world is tackling food shortages a Taiwan-based international
research institute is seeking to alleviate malnutrition and poverty in
developing counties by improving production and consumption of vegetables.
Since its founding in 1971 in Shanhua, south Taiwan, the Asian Vegetable
Research and Development Center (AVRDC) - the World Vegetable Center - has
changed the lives of millions of farmers in Asia and Africa by teaching them
how to grow vegetables, store and transport them as well as how to cook the
produce.

Over the past 37 years, AVRDC has seen its size and role expand rapidly as
improved vegetable production can help reduce malnutrition and poverty.

'We are not trying to use vegetables as a substitute for food, but rather as
an addition to the food basket, to help farmers become better nourished and
grow out of poverty,' the centre's director, Dr Dyno Keatinge, told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa.

Malnutrition represents a serious global problem. According to figures
released by the World Health Organization, 2 to 3.5 billion people suffer
from malnutrition and 1.1 billion people are underweight.

By improving vegetable production and raising yields, people's nutrition
levels can be improved, at the same time allowing farmers to make more money
by growing and selling better vegetables, Keatinge said.

As a non-profit organization, it gets funding from dozens of governments and
foundations which for 2008 totaled 18 million US dollars, operating regional
centres in Thailand, Tanzania and India. AVRDC also plans to open a regional
centre in Central America.

One main task for the centre is to gather germplasms - seeds or plant
culture - of indigenous vegetables from around the world and store them so
they won't become extinct. So far, AVRDC has stored 56,136 germplasms from
150 countries.

At the centre germplasms are planted to record their growth and
characteristics for long-term storage - up to 100 years.

Thousands of species of indigenous vegetables existed in the world,
providing important nutrition to people in developing countries Lin Li-ju of
AVRDC's international cooperation unit said, pointing to the plots of land
and greenhouses where the plants were grown.

'Take sweet potato shoots and leaves for example, they were poor men's diet
or pigs' feed in Taiwan in the past. But in recent years they have become a
popular dish in households and even at banquets because they are high in
vitamin A, E and iron,' she said.

AVRDC researchers are also experimenting with natural crossing to improve
the quality of vegetables and to make them pest- and heat-resistant. Genetic
engineering was monitored at the centre, but not actively pursued, officials
said.

Peter Hanson, a plant breeder, held up a plate of egg-sized yellow tomatoes,
the result of several years' of research.

'This Golden Tomato contains three to six times more beta carotene which is
the precursor to vitamin A. A single improved tomato like this can provide
all your daily vitamin A needs,' he said, popping a Golden Tomato into his
mouth.

AVRDC also teaches farmers in Asia and Africa how to irrigate vegetable
plots, pack and transport vegetables or preserve them.

Research shows that post-harvest loss can be up to 50 per cent if the
product is not transported properly, resulting in a waste of the produce and
a loss of income for farmers.

Often very simple actions can have great effects.

'In many countries, farmers hand over tomatoes to collectors who load the
tomatoes onto carts or trucks. By the time the produce has reached the
destination, the tomatoes at the bottom are crushed,' Katinka Weinberger,
AVRDC's socio-economist, said.

'We teach the farmers to separate green tomatoes from red ones, pack them
into bags and put green tomatoes at the bottom and red ones on top. As a
result, the farmers have cut down post-harvest waste and get a higher price
for their tomatoes,' she said.

AVRDC researchers also try to change farmers' harvest and storage habits, so
that vegetables can be delivered to the market speedily and in good shape.

'In some countries, farmers harvest vegetables around noon and let the
vegetables sit under the sun while they wait for the collector. The
collectors arrive by 5 or 6 pm. By the time the vegetables have reached the
market, they are no longer fresh,' Weinberger said.

'We advise them to harvest vegetables at dawn when it is cool. While waiting
for the collectors, we teach them how to keep the vegetables cool. That is,
they can put a soaked sack on top of the packed vegetables. That can bring
down the temperature by a few degrees,' she said.
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