AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center is the world’s leading international nonprofit research and development institute committed to alleviating poverty and malnutrition in developing countries through vegetable research and development. The Center was founded in 1971 as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, with a mandate to support vegetable research for development in tropical Asia and with a particular emphasis on Southeast Asia.

In the early 1990s, operations were expanded to sub-Saharan Africa, with some limited project work in Latin America. Regional offices in Bangkok, Thailand (Asian Regional Center) and Arusha, Tanzania (Regional Center for Africa) were opened in 1992 and the Regional Center for South Asia (Hyderabad, India) was opened in 2006. The Center currently has offices in Cameroon, Indonesia, Laos, Madagascar, Mali, the Solomon Islands, South Korea, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Over the past 35 years scientists at the World Vegetable Center have successfully bred cultivars and designed and developed technologies to increase yields and incomes in developing countries. Millions of farmers today grow vegetable crops using seed or technologies that have been developed at the Center.

The Center builds capacity and forms alliances with partners from both the public and private sectors to promote the production and consumption of safe vegetables in the developing world.

Vegetables are an engine for economic growth
Vegetable production provides a way out of poverty for smallholder farmers and the landless. It generates more income and jobs per hectare, on-farm and off-farm, than most other agricultural enterprises. Vegetable production helps diversify incomes and benefits farmers and landless laborers in rural, peri-urban, and urban areas.

Vegetables are essential for overcoming micronutrient malnutrition and improving health
Over two billion people, most of whom are poor women and children, do not have access to sufficient micronutrients in their diets. The lack of vitamin A, iron, iodine, and zinc compromises the body’s immune system and increases the risk of infections. Poor diets lead to poor mental and physical development, poor performances at school and the workplace, and the likelihood of poverty in future generations. The consumption of vegetables is the most sustainable strategy to overcome such micronutrient deficiencies, and it is affordable even for the poorest. Vegetables also help to diversify nutrition patterns and fight obesity which is rapidly increasing in both developed and developing countries.