1 October 2014 — Small-scale vegetable farmers in Asia have a new advocate in Dr. Fenton Beed, who has been appointed by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center as Regional Director for East and Southeast Asia operations, based in Bangkok, Thailand. As Regional Director, Dr. Beed will collaborate with donors and partners, develop new projects, and extend the research, development, and capacity-building work of AVRDC through networks to benefit farmers and consumers all along the region’s vegetable value chain.

An experienced plant pathologist in crop protection and biological weed control with extensive managerial experience in temperate and tropical environments, Dr. Beed holds a PhD in Plant Pathology from University College London.

From 2000 to the present he was Plant Pathologist for East and Central Africa at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). During his IITA tenure he managed a range of projects, from the establishment of the West African Pathogen Diagnostic Network (www.intpdn.org) to providing theoretical and practical training in plant pathology, sample collection, disease diagnosis, symptom recognition, morphological, serological and molecular identification, storage and weed control, and using fungal and insect biocontrol agents, botanicals, and cultural methods.

“Fenton’s deep knowledge of the many production challenges facing small-scale vegetable growers and his emphasis on practical, workable tools for disease diagnostics will be of great benefit to farmers in the region,” said Dr. Dyno Keatinge, Director General of AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center. “His proven ability to build strong and productive partnerships will help improve vegetable production and develop strong value chains.”

Dr. Beed has adapted state of the art technologies to meet local needs—for example, the development of hand-held serological kits for on-the-spot diagnosis of a given plant pathogen and methods to capture pathogen DNA from the field for analysis in centralized laboratories. He is the author of more than 75 scientific papers.

“During my career I have proven on several occasions my ability to gain understanding and support from donors, governments, inter‐governmental and nongovernmental organizations, regional trade and research bodies, extension and regulatory bodies, and researchers of different scientific disciplines to implement activities and policies that are critical to the empowerment of farming systems,” Dr. Beed said. “I therefore relish the challenge of nurturing an enabling environment to ensure that AVRDC’s regional research and development agenda flourishes.”