9 March 2012 www.avrdc.org

Women nourish the planet, but who nourishes women?

Entomologist Mei-ying Lin receives the Award of

Honour for her work on the legume pod borer

during the International Conference on

Entomology in India

Page 3

International Women’s Day, March

8, celebrates and recognizes women’s achievements. In the fight

against global hunger and poverty,

women are a powerful force—

especially in agriculture. Worldwide, roughly 1.6 billion

women rely on farming for their

livelihoods, and female farmers produce more than half of the

world's food. In sub-Saharan Africa

alone, women account for 75% of all agricultural producers.

But women farmers face a variety of

obstacles in their quest to produce food. Lack of access to land, credit,

farm inputs, and information

prevent women from planting and harvesting crops that can generate

income, provide nutrition, and

support agriculture-related

businesses.

The good news is that women and

organizations worldwide, including

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, are finding ways to ensure

women can sustainably nourish

their families and communities, including:

No other major

stakeholders are so

active in agriculture,

yet so neglected by

policy and culture.

2

establishing farm

cooperatives to supply food for school meals, which can

increase women’s incomes and

the health of the community

teaching young girls

agricultural skills through

school gardens and agricultural training in school curriculums.

AVRDC’s school and home

garden projects in the

Philippines, India, Indonesia, and Africa bring gardening

knowledge and better nutrition

into the classroom and the home.

making extension services women-friendly, to ensure

women farmers learn new best

practices and have access to

market information

increasing access to water,

which improves yields, saves labor, and generates income

that can be used to provide

balanced meals for a family and

pay for school fees or even a home. In many parts of sub-

Saharan Africa, the task of

gathering water can take up to eight hours of labor per day and

usually falls to women. The

Center’s work to evaluate and

adapt low-cost drip irrigation

kits has lightened the burden of

small-scale farmers in Africa and Oceania.

promoting container gardening, which allows

women without land the

opportunity to raise nutritious

vegetables, particularly in urban areas. More than 800

million people globally depend

on food grown in cities for their main food source. Vegetables

can be grown in pots, buckets,

sacks, bottles or other

containers, as AVRDC has demonstrated in Mali,

Cameroon, and Thailand.

increasing access to

microfinance, to provide

women with credit and other financial services to purchase

farm inputs or develop

agricultural businesses. Only

10% of the credit services

available in sub-Saharan Africa

are extended to women.

Although these approaches help

men as well as women, it is important for policymakers,

scientists, farmers' groups, and the

funding and donor communities to

ensure women have the opportunities and tools they need

to create an equitable and

nourished planet.

Read more

Bernard Pollack, Nourishing the Planet

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/

Mei-ying Lin (left), Assistant Specialist in Entomology, received the

Award of Honour for her presentation entitled “Exploration and identification of parasitoids of legume pod borer, Maruca vitrata, in

Southeast Asia” at the International Conference on Entomology, held

17-19 February 2012 at Punjabi University, Patiala, India. The

presentation was based on recent research from the GIZ/Vegetable Legumes project managed by R. Srinivasan, AVRDC Entomologist.

Mei-ying has more than 15 years of research experience in the field of

biological pest control. Congratulations, Mei-ying!

Recognition for AVRDC entomology research and researcher  

Tarsem Lal, site coordinator for the Sir Ratan Tata Trust project in Punjab, retired in

March 2012. Tarsem worked for AVRDC South Asia for four years, and was a former professor at Punjab Agricultural University. His extensive contacts within the

university were essential to the success of AVRDC’s research and development work

over the course of the project.

Farewell 

New scientific staff in South Asia strengthen regional research and 

development 

3 CORNUCOPIA

Vamsi Reddy began his career as an integrated pest management (IPM) specialist 13 years ago, and has evolved into a science and innovation policy researcher with experience across eight countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, as well as eight states of India. Trained in India, the Netherlands and the UK, Vamsi now coordinates the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) project with primary responsibility for scaling up the impact of vegetables on the livelihoods and health of poorer communities.

Naba Parida, who has joined the SRTT team in Jharkhand, northern India, brings seven years of experience in government and international organizations to in the dissemination of improved agricultural practices and collective marketing for small-scale farmers. He holds two master’s degrees from India and the Netherlands.

Giri Rajkumar Rachod is the new Scientific/Technical officer for the South Asia legume program. After completing his master’s degree in genetics and plant breeding, Giri worked at the Indian Council for Agricultural Research in soybean and sugarcane breeding, and also developed sweet sorghum varieties for the private sector.

4 CORNUCOPIA

The Center in the news

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural

Cooperation (CTA) now features Fresh, the AVRDC Newsletter, on its website. The organization aims to increase

the availability of agricultural and rural development

information and promote awareness of information sources.

http://www.cta.int/ Willem Van Cotthem, Honorary

Professor of Botany, University of Ghent,

Belgium and a consultant on desertification and sustainable

development, reprinted the 24 February

2012 Fresh article, “Flourishing in the

desert sands” on his blog, Desertification.

http://desertification.wordpress.com

The International Affairs Division

of Kasetsart University (KU) Thailand noted AVRDC Director

General Dyno Keatinge’s

December 2011 visit with

Sombat Chinawong, Vice President of KU’s Kamphaeng

Saen campus, in a recent issue of

the NONSEE Newsletter.

The Center’s participation in a new project to promote

sustainable development of high-value crops in the Pacific Islands was noted on several web outlets,

including the University of Queensland (UQ), Pacific

Islands News Association, and the Solomon Times

Online. UQ, AVRDC, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) will collaborate with national

agricultural ministries in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the

Solomon Islands to strengthen research capacity in the region and improve livelihoods of subsistence farmers.

http://www.pina.com.fj/

http://www.uq.edu.au/news/

http://solomontimes.com/

Visitors 

5 CORNUCOPIA

Gershon Kalyan (left), head of the Agronomic

Department, Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd., Israel; Masahide Tabata, ICL Fertilizers, Japan; and Liu Chia-

Tse, Shen Nung Shan Chuang Agriculture Co., Ltd. Taiwan

visited Center headquarters on 27 February 2012 to explore

opportunities for collaboration in fertigation, drip irrigation, and the use of starter solution. Mr. Kalyan and Mr. Tabata

toured the Demonstration Garden, guided by AVRDC soil

scientist Chin-hua Ma (right).

On 5 March 2012, six visitors representing seed

companies in Bangladesh met with plant breeders and staff of the Genetic Resources and Seed Unit at

headquarters. Led by Serajul Islam, Program Manager

– Seed Sector, Action for Enterprise, the group included

Shafiqul Aktar, Business Manager, and Mohammad Mizanur Rahaman, PDS Coordinator, Seed Advanced

Chemical Industries Ltd.; Farhad Hossain, Executive

Director, and Afzal Husain, General Manager, Metal Agro Ltd.; and Abu Zafar Md. Khorshed Alam

Chowdhury, Senior Plant Breeder, Getco Agro Vision,

Ltd. Action for Enterprise is a leader in the field of

private sector development for poverty alleviation with experience in 35 different value chains and 25 countries.

Fifty-three agricultural experts from 15 provinces of the People of Republic China visited the Center’s Demonstration

Garden on 7 March 2012.

On 16 February 2012, Phuong

Tran, Humanitarian Reporter

from the Integrated Regional

Information

Networks (IRIN) South

and

Southeast

Asia, and Olivia

Ryan, an

intern at IRIN, met

with Robert

Holmer,

AVRDC East and

Southeast

Asia Regional

Director, and Steve Kebasen,

Assistant to the Regional Director,

to discuss the Center’s global work

related to disaster preparedness

and relief, including AVRDC’s disaster response seed kits. IRIN, a

news service of the United Nations

Office for the Coordination of

Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), focuses on humanitarian stories in

regions that are often forgotten,

under-reported, misunderstood, or ignored. Its main purpose is to

create greater awareness and

understanding of regional issues

and events, and to contribute to better informed and more effective

humanitarian action, media

coverage and advocacy.

http://www.irinnews.org/

Reporting on seed kits for disaster preparedness 

(l to r): Phuong Tran, Humanitarian Reporter from the Integrated Regional

Information Networks (IRIN) South and Southeast Asia; Olivia Ryan, an

intern at IRIN; Robert Holmer, AVRDC East and Southeast Asia Regional

Director, and Steve Kebasen, Assistant to the Regional Director

SDC visits Research and Training Station

Marylaure Crettaz Corredor,

Policy Advisor on Agriculture & Rural Development of the Swiss

Agency for Development and

Cooperation (SDC), visited AVRDC’s East and Southeast Asia

Research

and Training Station in

Kamphaeng

Saen,

Thailand on 27 February

2012. Steve

Kebasen, Assistant to

the Regional

Director,

gave an overview of

the Center’s

global and regional

work, and

introduced capacity-building

activities such as the 31st International Vegetable Training

Course, which will be held from 10

September to 30 November 2012. Narinder Dhillon, Cucurbit

Breeder, presented the status and

outlook of the Center’s global crop improvement program for bitter

gourd (Momordica charantia) and

pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata).

Sopana Yule, Research Assistant, Entomology, gave an overview of

the legume pod borer (Maruca

vitrata) project, now in its second year, and Clemens Richert,

Research Fellow from the

University of Freiburg, explained

the objectives and activities of the upcoming project on geographic

information system (GIS)-based

Community Food Mapping in Greater Bangkok. The

presentations and discussions were

followed by a tour of the

demonstration garden, cucurbit research field and entomology

laboratory.

(l to r): Steve Kebasen, Assistant to AVRDC East and Southeast Asia Regional Director; Clemens Richert, Research Fellow from the University of Freiburg; Marylaure Crettaz Corredor, Policy Advisor on Agriculture & Rural Development of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Narinder Dhillon, AVRDC Cucurbit Breeder; and Sopana Yule, Research Assistant, Entomology.

6 CORNUCOPIA

7 CORNUCOPIA

HortCRSP Annual Conference 2012 in Thailand  

Established by the United States

Agency for International

Development (USAID), the Horticulture Collaborative

Research Support Program

(HortCRSP) supports projects to improve the livelihoods of the

world’s poor. During the

Horticulture CRSP Annual

Conference, 8-12 February 2012 in Thailand, the first HortCRSP

Center of Innovation was

launched at Kasetsart University in Bangkok. The Center aims to

promote the adoption of

horticulture technologies and

provide horticultural training programs for professionals on-site

and across the region.

Elizabeth Mitcham, HortCRSP

Director, and Panid Khemthong,

Kasetsart University’s Vice

President for Academic Affairs, welcomed participants to the

Center’s opening ceremony on 8

February. John Bowman, Senior International Affairs Specialist of

USAID’s Bureau for Food Security

and Thira Sutabutra, Chairman

of the Board of Thailand’s National Research Council, both expressed

their full support and commended

the establishment of the Center in their speeches. Michael Reid of

University of California (UC) Davis and Leader of HortCRSP’s Special

Projects and Technology

Innovation, delivered the keynote speech “Disruptive Technologies in

Small-Scale Horticulture.”

AVRDC Director General Dyno Keatinge addressed the audience

with a talk on “Agricultural

Innovations in Vegetable Horticulture.” Other lectures

included “Solar Drying Solutions

for Horticulture” by Diane M.

Barret of UC Davis, “New Tools for Sharing” by Mark A. Bell,

leader of HortCRSP’s Information

Management, and “Innovation Postharvest Solutions” by U. Linus

Opara, Stellenbosch University,

South Africa.

Participants also saw

demonstrations of several

technologies, such as the Coolbot, a black-box wired into a standard air-

conditioner converting it for cold

storage use; a concentrated solar dryer, which allows for on-farm

preservation of horticultural

products even during partially cloudy weather; and drying beads—

non-toxic, reusable zeolite

desiccant beads, an affordable and

convenient method to preserve seed quality in humid climates.

AVRDC East and Southeast Asia Regional Director Robert

Holmer, Cucurbit Breeder

Narinder Dhillon, and other

ESEA staff members also attended the launch program.

Dyno Keatinge participated in the 2012 HortCRSP International

Advisory Board meeting held on the

last day of the conference. Dyno also made a courtesy call to

Preungboon Chakkaphak,

Kasetsart University Vice President

for International Affairs.

The solar dryer (left) can dry fruits and vegetables even when the sun is partially hidden by

clouds. (right) A Coolbot regulates temperature for cold storage.

AVRDC Director General Dyno Keatinge gave a lecture on “Agricultural Innovations in Vegetable Horticulture” to the group.

Jerry Ma (left) and Liu Chun-Yu (right)

raced to tell the world about the value of vegetable consumption for nutrition and health

in their bright yellow AVRDC “Eat Your

Vegetables” T-shirts during the Tainan Ancient

Capital International Marathon on 12 February 2012 in Tainan, Taiwan.

Where do you eat vegetables? Wear your AVRDC “Eat your Vegetables” T-shirt, take a

photo, send it to Kathy Chen

<kathy.chen@worldveg.org>, and we’ll include

it in a future newsletter. Need a shirt? Order one from Kathy for US$ 8.50.

Who’s eating vegetables? 

Seeing double DG’s 

Former AVRDC – The World Vegetable Director

Director General Tom Lumpkin (center) and current DG Dyno Keatinge (right) recently compared notes

at the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique

(INRA) Biotech Center in Rabat, Morocco.

Dr. Lumpkin served as AVRDC DG from 2003-2008,

and is now the Director General of the International

Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. The men were attending the 1st Global Food

Security Forum in Rabat organized by the Office

Chérifien des Phosphates Group (OCP).

8 CORNUCOPIA

Conference Calendar

End Malnutrition Now: The Evergreen Revolution

2012 Rotary International Convention 6-9 May 2012 Bangkok, Thailand

Robert Holmer, Regional Director, AVRDC East and Southeast Asia,

will give the keynote speech in a breakout session on the importance of

vegetables to ensure global food and nutritional security.

http://www.rotaryconvention2012.com/

9 NEWS FROM THE REGIONS

New tools create a community of mungbean breeders 

New online tools developed as a

part of a joint project between AVRDC – The World Vegetable

Center and the International Crops

Research Institute for the Semi-

Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are linking mungbean crop breeding programs

across the world to avoid

duplication of effort. “Bioinformatics for Breeding: Data

Management,” a three-day

workshop at AVRDC South Asia in

Hyderabad from 27-29 February 2012, showcased the tools now

being used to speed up progress in

international mungbean breeding collaboration.

Participants from AVRDC,

ICRISAT, Thailand, the Philippines and India joined the workshop,

which was the final activity of a

project funded by the Australian Centre for International

Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The

project aimed to organize breeding

data for mungbean and sorghum, allowing it to be shared online.

Building on tools from the

Integrated Breeding Program of the

Generation Challenge Program, all AVRDC mungbean pedigree

information and characterization

data can now be shared online.

With a global area of more than 6

million hectares, mungbean is one

of the most important legume crops in Asia. Fast and drought-hardy, it

is widely used for dhal, sprouted as

a vegetable, or processed into noodles and snack foods.

Project leader Trushar Shah from the ICRISAT Bioinformatics group

said the workshop provided a

strong foundation for future

collaboration. National mungbean breeders enthusiastically embraced

the program; over time their

research has become more

sophisticated, and now there is a

greater need for international coordination to improve efficiency.

Previous collaborative breeding

programs between 29 national and international partners produced the

world’s most successful mungbean

varieties. Ram Nair, AVRDC mungbean breeder, said the new

online tools would lift international

collaboration to a new level.

AVRDC South Asia Regional

Director Warwick Easdown said

that breeding work forms a key part of international cooperation to

improve seed systems for

mungbean, agronomy, mechanization and value addition,

and that an active community of

interest is vital to the future of one

of the world’s most important legumes.

FAO and AVRDC: Increasing collaboration for food and nutrition security 

On 10 February 2012, Dyno

Keatinge, AVRDC Director General, met with Hiroyuki

Konuma, Assistant Director-

General and Regional

Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the

United Nations (FAO) at the FAO

Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand, to

discuss strategies on strengthening

the collaboration between both

organizations, particularly in the field of food and nutrition security.

Johannes Ketelaar, Chief

Technical Adviser of the FAO Inter-Country Programme for IPM in

Vegetables in South and South East

Asia; Piao Yongfan, FAO Senior

Plant Protection Officer; Subash

Dasgupta, FAO Senior Plant Production Officer; and Robert

Holmer, AVRDC Regional

Director East and Southeast Asia,

also attended the meeting.

Mr. Konuma used the opportunity

to invite the DG to be the keynote speaker for the FAO regional

symposium on “Promoting

Underutilized food systems for

better nutrition in Asia,” 21-23 May 2012 in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The

event will be held in collaboration

with the Faculty of Agriculture of Khon Kaen University and the

National Research Council of

Thailand.

Keynote speech by Hiroyuki

Konuma

http://www.fao.org/asiapacific/rap/

home/speeches/detail/en/?

speech_id=274

(l to r): Robert Holmer, AVRDC Regional Director East and Southeast Asia; Johannes Ketelaar, Chief Technical Adviser of the FAO Inter-

Country Programme for IPM in Vegetables in South and Southeast Asia; Piao Yongfan, Senior Plant Protection Officer of the Food and

Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative; Dyno

Keatinge, AVRDC Director General; and Subash Dasgupta, FAO Senior Plant Production Officer.

10 NEWS FROM THE REGIONS

On 20 February 2012, K.R.M. Bhanu from Biocontrol Research

Laboratories, Bangalore, India,

visited AVRDC East and Southeast

Asia’s Research and Training Station in Kamphaeng Saen,

Thailand. Biocontrol Research

Laboratories is a key collaborator

on AVRDC’s project “Less loss,

more profit, better health: reducing the losses caused by the pod borer

(Maruca vitrata) on vegetable

legumes in Southeast Asia and sub-

Saharan Africa” funded by Gesellschaft für Internationale

Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Sopana Yule and Chuanpit Khumsuwan, the project’s

entomologists, met with Dr. Bhanu

and gave an overview of the

project’s research activities in the region, with special focus on the

current rearing methods used for

mass reproduction of Maruca vitrata. Dr. Bhanu also visited the

bitter gourd and pumpkin research

areas, where the Center’s global

cucurbit breeding program was presented by research assistant

Supunsa Phethin.

A partner in pod borer control 

(l to r): Supunsa Phethin, Research Assistant Breeding, AVRDC East and Southeast Asia’s Research and Training Station in Kamphaeng Saen, Thailand; K.R.M. Bhanu, from Biocontrol Research Laboratories, Bangalore, India; and Chuanpit Khumsuwan, Research Assistant, Entomology.

Don’t delay ‐‐ register today! 

Registration is now open for AVRDC - The

World Vegetable Center's 31st International Vegetable Training

Course, to be held from 10 September to

30 November 2012 in Thailand. Taught in

three one-month modules, this popular course emphasizes advanced and

sustainable vegetable production and

postharvest technologies, farmer education, marketing, human health and

nutrition, and awareness of emerging

global development issues and

technologies.

Brochure and application form: http://www.avrdc.org/index.php?id=743

For more information, or to register: info-eastasia@worldveg.org

11 NEWS FROM THE REGIONS

Fresh, 9 March 2012

Fresh is published bi-weekly by

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center P.O. Box 42, Shanhua, Tainan 74199 Taiwan

Editor: Maureen Mecozzi Graphic design: Kathy Chen Photographic guidance: Ming-Che Chen

Contributors: Warwick Easdown, Robert Holmer, Dyno Keatinge, Steve Kebasen, Mei-yin Lin, Shiu-luan Lu

Comments, ask a question, add a name to our mailing list: info@worldveg.org

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