Rescuing vegetable biodiversity for a more nutritious and resilient future – the urgent need to establish a Global Vegetable Initiative 

The urgent need to rescue, conserve, and use vegetable biodiversity for improved health, income and climate resilience has been repeatedly highlighted. From 3-7 March 2025, global experts on the role of vegetables in global food and agriculture systems gathered at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, northern Italy. There, they engaged in focused discussions, debates, and collaborative efforts to develop concrete strategies for turning their visions into reality through the development and the implementation of a Global Vegetable Initiative.

The World Vegetable Center was truly honored to host the convening, which brought together 19 thought leaders and representatives from governments, international organizations, universities, youth and farmers associations, the private sector – all united in their commitment to advancing vegetable biodiversity on a global scale.

This follows on from the release of the African Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan in September 2024, endorsed by the African Union Commission. A draft Global Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan was prepared as a basis for discussion at the Bellagio convening. The aim of the Global Vegetable Initiative is to address the urgent need for accelerated rescue, conservation, and use of vegetable biodiversity across the world. Securing vegetable biodiversity through implementing the Global Vegetable Initiative can also serve as a model for other underrepresented food groups in international food and agriculture research and development, such as fruits and nuts.

The problem

Current food systems need transformation for human and planetary health, and vegetable biodiversity has a high potential to achieve nutritious diets, improved livelihoods, and climate resilience. But there is a rapid decline in vegetable biodiversity and vegetables are underrepresented in conservation and seed exchange efforts, and underinvested in general compared to staple crops. This leads to an irreversible loss of options to transform food systems for current and future generations.

Changing climates, diets and landscapes threaten vegetable biodiversity worldwide. Losing the enormous diversity of vegetable species reduces options for current and future generations. It is crucial to rescue and conserve this biodiversity and encourage its use by farmers, and by breeders to develop improved varieties. Available varieties are often not well-adapted to meet the demands of farmers and others in the value chain, variety turnover is slow. At the same time, national seed systems tend to be weak. There is an urgent need to increase farmers’ access to quality seed of diverse, nutritious, high-performing and climate-resilient vegetable varieties.

The way forward

The Bellagio participants agreed that there is a need to realize the potential of vegetable biodiversity for nutritious diets, improved livelihoods, and climate resilience for current and future generations. They recognized the urgent need to establish a Global Vegetable Initiative as a unique nexus of biodiversity, agriculture and health by rescuing, conserving, and using vegetable landraces and their wild relatives globally. The participants encouraged WorldVeg to lead the development and implementation in partnership with international organizations such as CGIAR and the Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust), as well as key regional and national stakeholders. They called upon the Power of Diversity Funding Facility (PDFF) of the Crop Trust and other funding mechanisms including co-investments to fund the Global Vegetable Initiative.

The participants noted that the Global Vegetable Initiative aligns with and contributes to major health, biodiversity, and climate resilience movements, such as the Scaling Up Nutrition movement (SUN), the Eat Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, and Health, the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS), and the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity. They welcomed the discussions around expanding the Annex 1 crop list of the FAO Plant Treaty, which can accelerate vegetable seed exchange. They welcomed that the Global Vegetable Initiative will build on WorldVeg ongoing activities and achievements in Africa, as part of implementing a regional plan to rescue, conserve and use vegetable biodiversity endorsed by the African Union in 2024.

All key stakeholders are urged to join this collective effort. By working collaboratively, we can rescue, conserve and sustainably use our planet’s vegetable biodiversity heritage for nutritious diets, improved livelihoods, and climate resilience. The detailed communique can be found here.

Heartfelt thanks to The Rockefeller Foundation for their enthusiasm and invaluable support, and especially to all participants for their commitment, energy and experience as we steer the way forward.

Crop Trust, CGIAR ,FAO,  The Asia and Pacific Seed Alliance, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Norad – Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Asian Farmers Association, University of East Anglia, GlobalAffairsCanada, Vania C. Renno Azevedo, Bosibori Bett, PhD, Marcel Beukeboom, Nikita Eriksen-Hamel, Cary Fowler, Sophie Healy-Thow, Masa Iwanaga, Tsukuba, Sarada Krishnan, Alfred Kung, Delphine Larrousse, Sognigbe N’Danikou, @Ma. Estrella Penunia, Nitya Rao, Francine Sayoc, Stefan S., @Álvaro Toledo, Daniel van Gilst, Maarten van Zonneveld, Marco Wopereis

The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Convening Program

For more than 110 years, The Rockefeller Foundation has united the efforts of leaders, luminaries, and trailblazers from around the globe to solve the world’s most challenging problems and promote the well-being of humanity. Convenings are critical to realizing the Foundation’s mission. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/fellowships-convenings/bellagio-center/convenings/