Opportunities for collaboration in vegetable production for young professionals in agriculture at AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, Taiwan

 Disclaimer: *Account is of the YPARD Zimbabwe representative and not of the AVRDC 

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, Taiwan held an Open Day at its headquarters recently on May 18, 2012. Participants from the island of Taiwan braced the rainy weather to witness, share, and give feed back on the center’s work. AVRDC theme for the day was “Collaboration: The cornerstone of agricultural research”. A Young Professionals Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (www.ypard.net) Zimbabwe representative attended the activity with the objective to establish the opportunities for young professionals in agriculture within the center’s work.

Organized tours by AVRDC staff were as follows:

1. Breeding – tomato, pepper and cucurbit trials, and pathology screening trials led by Shiu-luan Lu and Ruby Hsiao
2. Production and laboratory – demonstration garden, insectary, bacteriology, mycology, virology, and soil labs led by Pamela Huang and Wen-Shi Tsai, and
3. Overview – view pepper and cucurbit trials, visiting laboratories, insectary, gene bank and demonstration garden led by Jessica Chang and Jen Wen Luoh.

Collaboration defined as “to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual behavior” is extended also to suggest in germ plasm ventures and research. Collaboration is one asset to explore and further the objectives of AVRDC, partners, and individuals with special interest in vegetable production. Because AVRDC puts poor and urban households, who are often ignored in public policy and action, on the agenda the centers’ nutrition work is indispensable. Therefore, as AVRDC coined collaboration, and I might add, funding and sustainability, of its work avails options to nation’s governments, vulnerable groups, and small holders as the world addresses nutrition issues. To cement this point, a post-doctoral fellow at university remarked to me once that “We are in the era of collaboration”. In pursuit of the agricultural course, young professionals stand to benefit for example through checking AVRDC’s website especially under professional development, a visit to AVRDC through its regional centers and possible collaboration and ventures on germ plasm in the public domain. For more information, AVRDC is available at: www.avrdc.org 

 A similar version of this blog article can be found at The Book.