Saving and sharing Asian vegetable biodiversity – an international learning experience

Vegetables are hugely important for human nutrition, and for diverse and resilient farming systems that generate income for smallholder producers, processors and traders. But, due to changes in diets and the climate, urbanization and other land use change, crop diversity is being rapidly lost, alongside wild species and varieties that could hold valuable genetic material for breeding higher yielding and more tolerant crops in the future. So, it is crucial that more vegetable biodiversity is rescued, conserved, and effectively used. In response to this challenge, a week-long international course was organized at the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan on 8-12 April 2024, that brought together 50 scientists, professionals and trainers from 23 countries across the world, with a focus on Asia.

The learning experience was supported by the Taiwan Asia Vegetable Initiative – ‘the TAsVI project’ – that is strengthening international collaboration to rescue and conserve vegetable biodiversity in Asia, and promote its use in research, breeding and farming for improved health, nutrition and climate resilience. WorldVeg leads implementation, with partners in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Taiwan. A key component is the repatriation back to their respective home countries of more than 3,000 vegetable seed accessions stored at the WorldVeg genebank in Taiwan, that were collected 20-30 years ago.

The training course had nine modules, delivered by renowned experts from the Global Crop Diversity Trust, IITA, ICRISAT, IRRI, Known-You Seed, Netherlands Centre of Genetic Resources, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Taiwan Seed Improvement and Propagation Station, and the World Vegetable Center. Modules included the status and trends in the conservation and use of vegetable biodiversity in Asia, seed multiplication, field practicals on seed multiplication, seed quality and health, innovations in genebank management, quality management systems, enhancing use of vegetable biodiversity, group work on genebank operations, and a field visit to the Dr Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center.

The benefits were clearly shared by participants at the end of the workshop. Sivanaswari Chalaparmal of the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institute and Krishna Kumar Mishra of SAAN International College in Nepal both praised the excellent organization of the training course and valued very much the new knowledge they had gained. Wathsala Mudiyanselage from the Horticultural Crops Research and Development Institute in Sri Lanka said that “This was a very good platform to connect and learn about germplasm handling and regeneration processes, and I thank the WorldVeg team for this opportunity and all other genebank curators and professionals for sharing their knowledge. In our Department of Agriculture, we face problems with finding germplasm with good qualities especially for resistance to abiotic and biotic stress, but now we have made good contacts to get materials to incorporate in our breeding programs.”

Sognigbé N’Danikou, WorldVeg scientist on traditional vegetable conservation and utilization summed up the event well. “It became clear to everyone that genebanks should not be museums. The material we conserve must be used, so we must find more ways to collaborate and partner with end users. We all heard this week how other genebanks in Asia, Africa and Europe operate and exploit the value of the genetic resource that they conserve. I saw how everyone was learning from each other, and our genebank in Tanzania will benefit from the experiences shared this week.”

Later in 2024 there will be national workshops in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, 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 to the respective national authorities. Information on these will be communicated when the dates are confirmed.

This workshop is part of the Taiwan Asia Vegetable Initiative (TAsVI), funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2022-2024). 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 University 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.