Across continents

Pratices of urban farming

From World Vegetable Center Annual Report 2024

Selected highlights

  • 61,000 new jobs were created through vegetable businesses in Cambodia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, and Tanzania.
  • 21,500 farmers adopted some of 30 climatesmart good agricultural practices for various vegetables piloted and scaled in Benin, Mali and Tanzania, Cambodia, Laos, India, Philippines and Sri Lanka.
  • 19,300 vegetable value chain actors were trained on good handling practices and postharvest management of vegetables in Cambodia, India, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana.
  • 500 farmers across Latin America and the Caribbean adopted the Plantix app diagnosing pests and diseases through a training of trainers program.
  • 6 postharvest interventions were piloted in Cambodia, India, Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania – parabolic solar dryers, zero energy cool chambers, cool boxes, paper-lined wooden boxes, plastic crates, and low-cost ventilated storage systems.
  • 1,500 peer-reviewed journal papers were screened, looking for interventions that increase the availability, affordability, and accessibility of fruit and vegetables, with most on nutrition education and behavior change (57%), and most measured fruit and vegetable intake as the main outcome (83%).
  • The VeggieMon database was developed, with >10,000 entries on vegetable diseases, on 30 species from 62 countries, with users from Benin, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines trained on its use.
  • Surveys in the Philippines and Tanzania showed that vegetable consumption is shaped by affordability, food safety concerns, and distance from markets; many preferring to buy from trusted local producers.
  • Launch of SUPER MAGIC – a new tomato Multiparent Advanced Generation Inter-Cross (MAGIC) population combining heat tolerance with improved horticultural characteristics.
  • Optimal parental combinations for tomato F1 hybrids were identified to enable rapid progress in hybrid development by partners and F2 population development.
  • Tomato lines containing combinations of 4 TY resistance genes were evaluated in Europe, Asia and Africa, and resistance gene combinations found to withstand TYCD were identified.
  • 1,091 WorldVeg-developed pepper lines were distributed to 39 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
  • 94 WorldVeg-developed inbred chili pepper lines were screened, with 51 identified as resistant to Chili veinal mottle virus and 7 lines resistant to Cucumber mosaic virus.
  • Insect resistance in pepper was combined with enhanced heat tolerance and disease resistance, to bacterial wilt, late blight, Tomato spotted wilt, Tomato chlorosis virus, and Pepper veinal mottle virus.
  • Genome wide association studies using the global Capsicum core collection revealed significant loci associated with tolerance in various heat-stress component traits in pepper.
  • A large segregating population of sweet pepper was phenotyped for heat stress tolerance, for use in future QTL mapping and breeding programs.
  • A recurrent selection program to improve resistance of pepper to thrips was initiated based on nine WorldVeg resistance sources and progressed to the S3 generation.
  • 53 WorldVeg-developed chili lines were screened against the highly virulent race 3 of Phytophthora capsici and identified 4 highly resistant and 6 moderately resistant individuals.
  • A WorldVeg-developed chili pepper line was found to be tolerant to broad mite impact for up to 21 days.
  • 355 recombinant inbred lines from a WorldVeg-developed introgression line were screened for resistance to anthracnose disease in pepper caused by Colletotrichum truncatum, with 80 lines found to be resistant.
  • 25 pumpkin F1 hybrids were identified for multiple virus resistance, high beta-carotene and better yield.
  • Seed of 383 cucurbit lines was distributed to 14 seed companies.
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