8-12 April, WorldVeg headquarters, Shanhua, Taiwan

This week-long specialist training course will convene some 45 participants from more than 20 countries across East, South and Southeast Asia, East and West Africa, Europe and North America, at WorldVeg HQ in Taiwan.

There will be nine modules: (1) Status and trends in the conservation and use of vegetable diversity in Asia, (2) Seed multiplication, (3) Field practicum on seed multiplication, (4) Seed quality and health, (5) Innovations in genebank management, (6) Quality management systems, (7) Enhancing use of vegetable diversity, (8) Group work on genebank operations, and (9) Field visit.

These will be delivered by renowned experts from the Global Crop Diversity Trust, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, International Rice Research Institute, Australia’s Grain Genebank, the Netherlands’ Centre of Genetic Resources, Dalberg Global Consulting Firm, Known-You Seed, and the World Vegetable Center.

This training is part of the three-year Taiwan Asia Vegetable Initiative (2022-2024), that is strengthening international collaboration to salvage, store and share vegetable biodiversity in Asia, and promoting the use of vegetable germplasm in breeding programs to improve health, nutrition and climate resilience. The World Vegetable Center leads the implementation, with partners in Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. A key component is the repatriation of tens of thousands of vegetable seed accessions that were collected across Southeast Asia in the 1990s and 2000s and are stored at the WorldVeg genebank in Taiwan – to their respective home countries.

This training follows on from two other TAsVI training courses in 2023, and online course included all project partners in May, and a workshop on genebank management and collaboration held in Taiwan. WorldVeg also runs similar training course in Africa as part of the Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI)

Later in 2024 (dates to be confirmed), there will be national workshops in each of the four partner countries, to promote the use of the accessions being sent ‘back home’ by connecting national genebanks with universities, government organizations, seed companies and farmer organizations. These will each start with ‘seed handing-over ceremonies’, where the repatriated seed will be formally handed over.

TAsVI is funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is implemented by the World Vegetable Center, in partnership with the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) National Plant Genetic Resources Center; Malaysia Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI) Horticulture Research Centre; University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Institute of Plant Breeding, and Bureau of Plant Industries (BPI), the Philippines; Kasetsart Univerity Tropical Vegetable Research Center (TVRC), and Department of Agriculture Horticulture Research Institute national genebank, Thailand; and Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute (FAVRI), and Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) Plant Resource Center (PRC), Vietnam.