World Vegetable Center and TaiwanICDF forge strategic partnership to tackle global agricultural challenges

Following last month’s signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Taiwan’s Ministry of Agriculture, the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) has gained another key collaborator. On 7 August 2024, Ambassador Dr Charles C. Li, Secretary General of the International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF), led a delegation to WorldVeg headquarters and signed an MoU, marking a crucial step towards jointly addressing global poverty and nutritional challenges.

Dr Marco Wopereis, WorldVeg Director General expressed enthusiasm for broad collaboration in the future, noting that both organizations share a common vision across multiple areas including knowledge exchange, project innovation, skill sharing, capacity building, and project implementation. Ambassador Dr Li highlighted TaiwanICDF’s extensive experience in agriculture and emphasized how combining the strengths of both organizations will allow TaiwanICDF’s expertise to contribute increasingly to agricultural development across the world.

After the signing ceremony, Mr Yun-ping Wang, WorldVeg Deputy Director General – Partnerships, guided the delegation on a tour of the Center’s high-throughput phenotyping system, demonstrating how 3D imaging and big data analytics are used to assess the growth and performance of different vegetable varieties, driving precision breeding efforts. The delegation also visited several laboratories to see WorldVeg research on developing climate-resilient, high yielding, and economically viable crop varieties, biocontrol, and much more, for the benefit of smallholder farmers.

Both organizations stated their optimism about the outcomes of this collaboration, which aims to make significant impacts in contributing to improving agricultural sustainability and global food security.