World Vegetable Center facts for kids

The World Vegetable Center (also known as WorldVeg) is a special international group that studies vegetables. It's a nonprofit organization, which means it doesn't try to make money. Instead, it works to make vegetables better and help people grow more of them. WorldVeg started in 1971 in Shanhua, Taiwan. Its main goal is to fight malnutrition (when people don't get enough good food) and help reduce poverty in different countries. They do this by helping people grow and eat more healthy vegetables.

How the World Vegetable Center Started

The World Vegetable Center began in 1971. Back then, it was called the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC). Many countries helped create it, including the Asian Development Bank, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States, and South Vietnam.

The main campus, where most of the work happens, opened in 1973. Later, in 2008, the center changed its name to the World Vegetable Center.

For about 20 years, the World Vegetable Center was a big research hub for sweet potatoes. They had a huge collection of over 1,600 different types of sweet potatoes. But in 1991, they decided to stop their sweet potato research. This was because it cost a lot, and other groups started focusing only on sweet potatoes. The World Vegetable Center then shared all its research and sweet potato types with the International Potato Center and the Taiwan Agricultural Research institute.

Discovering New Vegetable Benefits

Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), a traditional vegetable high in vitamin C

Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), a traditional leafy green that also produces a nutritious grain.

High beta-carotene cherry tomatoes bred by WorldVeg

Tomato grower with child near NayPyiTaw, Myanmar

The World Vegetable Center believes that vegetables are super important for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. These goals aim to make the world a better place for everyone. Vegetables can be very valuable crops, especially in poorer areas. They can help families earn money and get important nutrients they might be missing.

The Center works on many important vegetables around the world. Here are some of the main types they focus on:

• Fruiting vegetables: Like tomatoes, sweet peppers, chili peppers, and eggplants.
• Bulb vegetables: Such as onions, shallots, and garlic.
• Gourd family vegetables: This includes cucumbers and pumpkins.

The World Vegetable Center also studies "indigenous" or "traditional" vegetables. These are plants that have been grown in certain regions, especially in Asia and Africa, for a very long time. They are a key part of local food systems. Many of these vegetables are not used as much as they could be, especially in places where they are not native.

The Center has worked with groups like the Global Crop Diversity Trust and Kew Gardens to learn more about how eggplants were first grown by people.

It's thought that the World Vegetable Center has the biggest collection of chili peppers in the world. They are also working hard to find and create new types of chili peppers that can grow well even with climate change.

How Climate Change Affects Vegetables

Experts at the World Vegetable Center are looking at wild relatives of common vegetables. They hope these wild plants can help protect our food from the effects of climate change. This means finding plants that can handle hotter weather or less water.

Protecting Vegetable Seeds

The World Vegetable Center has a huge collection of vegetable germplasm. Think of germplasm as the genetic material of a plant, often stored as seeds. This collection is considered the largest and most diverse in the world. It holds more than 60,000 different types of seeds from 442 different plant species. These seeds were collected from 156 countries!

The Center has a special computer system called AVGRIS. This system helps them keep track of all the information about their seed collection. It records details like when seeds were collected, what they look like, how they grow, and how many seeds they have. It also helps them share seeds with other researchers.

To make sure these precious seeds are safe, a backup of the Center's collection is stored at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. This vault is like a giant, super-safe freezer for seeds. The goal is to have a backup of the entire collection there by 2025.

See also

• Food and Agriculture Organization