‘Seed homecomings’ –WorldVeg repatriating vegetable germplasm to their Southeast Asia countries of origin
Many thousands of vegetable seed samples were collected 20-30 years ago across Southeast Asia by national genebanks and the World Vegetable Center. And today, some of these no longer exist in their countries of origin. Enter, the Taiwan Asia Vegetable Initiative (TAsVI), that has been identifying, testing and package more than 3,700 accessions that will now be sent back to Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The project has also established a platform including national genebanks in the region, the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, and WorldVeg, to regenerate this seed and make it available to researchers, seed companies and farmers.
![image1](https://avrdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image1-400x335.png)
![image2](https://avrdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/image2-400x566.jpeg)
The return of this vegetable heritage will be celebrated in each country at ‘seed homecoming ceremonies.’ The first of these will be held in Thailand on 19 September 2024 at the Tropical Vegetable Research Center, at Kasetsart University’s Kamphaeng Saen campus. The second will be in the following week, in the Philippines. These will be followed by ceremonies in Vietnam and Malaysia in October, before a final event and two-day stakeholder symposium in December.
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
WORLDVEG IN THE NEWS
[Video] Da Ai Journal: Doomsday Ark (English/Mandarin)
Da Ai Televetion|Taiwan, January 2024
[Video] OUR ISLAND: Seed exchange and conservation (English/Mandarin)
PTS, February 2023
[Video] Seed conservation and Breeding-2 (English/Mandarin)
Formosa TV, February 2023
[Video] Seed conservation and Breeding-1 (English/Mandarin)
Formosa TV, February 2023
New partnership agreement signed to improve global nutrition and food security ACIAR, February 2023
AFACI Newsletter Issue No. 22.
AFACI Newsletter, January – December 2022
[Video] PROJET NUTRIFOOD: Dr. Marco WOPEREIS visite le jardin scolaire de Goulo-Sodji à Zè (French)
AgricoTV, April 2022
Low-Cost Solar Dryers Yield Sustainable Incomes to Marginal Farmers of Koraput District in Odisha.
ICRISAT Happenings Newsletter, April 2022
Audience au Ministère de l’Agriculture, de l’Elevage et de la Pêche du Benin: World Vegetable Center porte le projet d’un symposium (French).
Benin ODD TV, April 2022
Team of scientists from Taiwan visits Nagaon
The Sentinel, April 2022
Interview with Edmond Totin, WorldVeg Project Manager for SAFEVEG on Climate Change in Africa (French)
UN News, April 2022
Why Seedbank Aren’t Just for Doomsday
BBC Future, April 2022
The scientists helping farmers kick the chemical habit
AFP, March 2022 – Published in France24, RFI, MSN, Global Times and others
Sharing Knowledge for Self-Sufficiency – International Aid in Fruit and Vegetable Production
Taiwan Panorama, February 2022
Pressing for policies that promote “forgotten foods”
Grow Further, 9 December 2021
Cherry tomatoes
KU Research Weekly, 2 December 2021
The fight of mushrooms in farmland. Biotechnology at the service of humanity
Spark Chronicles, 29 November 2021
Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) recognizes 2021’s five ‘most influential’ seed scientists in Asia-Pacific
Seed Quest, 19 November 2021
Un plan mundial para conservar la diversidad de frutas y hortalizas
A en verde, 10 November 2021
European donor delegation discusses partnerships for greater impact delivery in Malian agriculture
ICRISAT Happenings, 15 October 2021