WorldVeg at a World Food Prize Foundation event – and now to begin activities in Mexico

On 10-11 July, 600 people from 55 countries attended a DialogueNext event entitled ‘Seeds of strength: nurturing farmer resilience’, organized by the World Food Prize Foundation and CIMMYT, and held at CIMMYT headquarters in El Batán, Texcoco, Mexico. This included a session, ‘Transforming agrifood systems for nourishing all people’, bringing together experts from diverse fields who explored innovative strategies and solutions for redesigning food systems, to ensure everyone has access to nutritious, safe and affordable food.

Facilitated by Shakuntala Thilsted, 2021 Laureate and CGIAR Director of Nutrition, Health and Food Security Impact Area Platform; panel members included Ismahane Elouafi, CGIAR Executive Managing Director; Marco Wopereis, WorldVeg Director General; Yvonne Pinto, IRRI Director General; and Baboucarr Manneh, Africa Rice Center Director General.

Panel members (left to right): Shakuntala Thilsted, Ismahane Elouafi,

Marco Wopereis, Yvonne Pinto and Baboucarr Manneh

The panel addressed key challenges such as sustainable agricultural practices, climate resilience and policy integration. They shared insights into how collaboration among and between farmers, businesses, policy makers and communities drive this crucial transformation, fostering health, economic growth and environmental sustainability. Emphasis was given to farmer resilience, and the contributions of different organizations to this cause.

During the panel discussions, Marco Wopereis elaborated on the nutritional, economic and resilience potential of vegetables to diversify staple-based farming systems. He also said how happy he was that WorldVeg was joining the Mexican MasAgro initiative, facilitated by CIMMYT. As part of this, WorldVeg will establish a vegetable network in Mexico that will amongst other activities, assist in the identification and testing of vegetable breeding lines of are likely to perform well in Mexico. This will begin with chili pepper, habanero pepper, pumpkin and tomato. WorldVeg will also train farmers in safe sustainable vegetable production practices. This effort will be led by Derek Barchenger, global pepper breeder at WorldVeg. This vegetable project marks the first time WorldVeg has been active in Mexico.

On 12 July, this was followed by discussions on opportunities to further strengthen and deepen the partnership between WorldVeg and CIMMYT. They already work together on a number of key projects, including the Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AIDI) In Tanzania, Rwanda and DR Congo, and the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Approach for Sudan – Vegetables for Income, Nutrition and Employment in Sudan (SASAS VINES) project in Sudan.

MasAgro (Modernización Sustentable de la Agricultura Tradicional) is an initiative in Mexico that aims to improve the productivity and sustainability of traditional agriculture to enhance food security, increase farmer incomes and mitigate environmental impacts. It focuses on smallholders, providing them with access to improved agricultural practices, technologies and innovations. MASAGRO is a collaborative effort involving the Mexican government, international organizations and research institutions, working together to transform agricultural practices and support rural development in Mexico. MASAGRO is primarily funded by the Mexican government through the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), with support from international organizations and research institutions, including CIMMYT.

The new Vegetable Project in Mexico is funded by the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development. The first vegetable network workshop is planned to take place on 14-18 October 2024.