WorldVeg opens a new country office in Mexico – opening opportunities for greater impact in Latin America and the Caribbean 

For more than 50 years, the World Vegetable Center has been at the forefront of developing and promoting innovative vegetable technologies that improve nutrition, drive economic growth, build climate resilience, and support environmental sustainability. Most efforts were initially focused on Asia since the organization’s establishment in 1973, and since the 1990s also in Africa, but with much less presences in the Pacific or in Latin America and the Caribbean. Until now.

Roland Schafleitner, Vegetable Diversity and Improvement Flagship Leader, and manager of the new WorldVeg country office in Mexico

Demonstrating the commitment of WorldVeg to fostering collaboration and expanding impact in the region, a new WorldVeg country office was opened in Mexico, in March 2025 – its first in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

This will serve as a dynamic hub for research, training and outreach activities for supporting smallholder farmers and local communities across Latin America and the Caribbean, through the introduction and promotion of new varieties, innovative vegetable technologies, and training. Through close collaboration with regional partners, WorldVeg aims to develop sustainable solutions that tackle pressing challenges in nutrition, food security, and poverty alleviation.

Latin America and the Caribbean stand out in the world of vegetables. The region holds multiple hotspots of agricultural biodiversity, and contains the center of origin for some of the world’s most important vegetable species, including chili, habanero and sweet (bell) pepper, tomato and pumpkin, amongst others. These crops, first domesticated and cultivated by indigenous communities across the region millennia ago, have in recent centuries become staples in the diets of people all around the globe. Thus, it is of upmost importance that the genetic resources of wild relatives are conserved, and efforts to breed improved varieties are expanded.

Yet, despite this rich diversity and vast agricultural potential, food insecurity and malnutrition continue to affect millions across the New World. Progress had been made in recent decades in improving this situation, but further advances have been increasingly threatened by converging crises – the continuing impacts of the Covid pandemic, escalating climate change impacts, civil strife and conflicts, economic shocks, falling employment, and rising prices of food and farm inputs.

The WorldVeg Mexico office is hosted by CIMMYT (the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), part of a strategic partnership to amplify collective efforts to generate income opportunities and build resilience in farming communities, and improve the nutrition of all. WorldVeg and CIMMYT signed a Memorandum of Agreement in 2023, and already work together on projects in Africa, such as in Sudan, Tanzania and the Great Lakes region. Now, they will strive towards common goals that advance food and nutrition security, not only in Latin America and the Caribbean, but around the globe.