(left to right) Marvin Martin, WorldVeg at AFSTA meeting!
World Vegetable Center representatives attended the annual meeting of the African Seed Trade Association (AFSTA) in Dakar, Senegal from 28 February - 2 March 2017.
Seed yield and protein content in the Weibullsholm Pisum collection
Peas (Pisum sativum L.) and other grain legumes or rapeseed meal (Brassica napus L. subsp. oliefera) are potential sources of protein. These are also good rotation crops. For farmers, protein and yield are key traits. In this study, a dataset containing 37 descriptors and 1222 accessions from a germplasm collection of P. sativum was analyzed.
A joint approach for onion seed sector development in Balochistan
Pakistan has annual rainfall of only 260 mm—an ideal area for producing onion seed. Yet onion growers in Balochistan often have difficulty obtaining good quality seed. WorldVeg is addressing the need. -- MORE --
Taiwan Seed Industry Development Forum
Twelve Taiwan seed companies met with World Vegetable Center staff and members of the Taiwan Council of Agriculture, Food and Fertilizer Technology Center, and the Taiwan Seed Trade Association on 3 October 2016 at WorldVeg headquarters to seek out areas for collaboration. WorldVeg staff learned about the research priorities of Taiwan seed companies, and seed companies were introduced to the Center's vital role in international agriculture, particularly in Africa and other parts of Asia. The forum aimed to facilitate knowledge sharing, opportunities for regional field trials, and transfer of the Center's research products to Taiwan vegetable producers.
Seed Repository
The World Vegetable Center Eastern and Southern Africa in Arusha, Tanzania maintains Africa's largest vegetable seed collection. Take a look inside the Seed Repository with manager Tsvetelina Stoilova and meet other WorldVeg researchers working to conserve, characterize and share the diversity of African vegetables to safeguard the continent's food and nutrition security.
Seed sector savvy
Ideas for collaboration germinated when representatives from eight seed companies—all members of the Asia & Pacific Seed Association (APSA)—and World Vegetable Center staff met for a roundtable discussion on 26 July 2016 at WorldVeg headquarters in Taiwan.
The contribution of international vegetable breeding to private seed companies in India
Crop breeding research by international agricultural research centers usually serves public sector crop breeding, but does it still have a role when research and development have shifted to the private sector? This paper explores this question for vegetables in India using data from 27 private companies and 9 public organizations.
New seed shipment arrives in Svalbard
Institutes from around the world made deposits to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week, marking another step forward in the fight to ensure future global food security. More than 8,000 varieties of crops from Germany, Thailand, New Zealand, and the World Vegetable Center arrived at the Vault, located on a remote Norwegian archipelago, to be stored deep within the permafrost.
Policy and institutional frameworks for vegetable seed production
Farmers’ access to quality vegetable seeds is a critical bottleneck in most communities, while enabling government policies to facilitate the establishment of an efficient vegetable seed supply and distribution systems are lacking.