AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center is an international, nonprofit institute for vegetable research and development. The Center helps small-scale farmers in developing countries grow vegetables safely, which helps to raise their incomes, and encourages people to eat more vegetables for good health.

AVRDC started out in 1971 as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center. Their work spans the globe. Headquartered in southern Taiwan, we have regional offices in Thailand, India, Tanzania, and Dubai, and staff in many other countries. The Center researchers lead and participate in projects throughout Asia, Africa, Central America, and Oceania. They have 300 staff engaged in this spread of activities, and seek to partner with governments, nongovernmental organizations, universities, research institutes, and the private sector to promote prosperity for the poor and health for all through the increased production and consumption of nutritious, health-promoting vegetables.

The Center’s work covers four themes: Germplasm, Breeding, Production, and Consumption.

Their genebank—the world’s largest public-sector collection of vegetable seed—holds more than 60,000 kinds of vegetable germplasm (seed, living plants), including the world’s largest collection of tomato and pepper, the second largest collection of eggplant, and more than 10,000 kinds of indigenous, or local, vegetables. Vegetable breeders at the Center and all around the world use materials from our genebank to breed new vegetable lines that produce more fruit, resist pests and diseases, and can thrive under extreme weather conditions such as flooding or drought.

The Center develops simple technologies to help farmers grow vegetables safely, harvest them successfully, and get more of their produce to market. And because vegetables are the very best source of micronutrients for good health, we promote home gardens and recipes to improve nutrition, especially for women, children, and the elderly.