Vegetable Science International Network

VEGINET

Vegetable Science International Network (VEGINET)

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Prem Nath addressing the audience during the VEGINET Session

In 1978, the UN Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) accepted it as an important development tool for achieving national and collective self-reliance and adopted the Buenos Aires Plan of Action to support implementation of these objectives. In 1979, FAO launched a new initiative to put emphasis on TCDC as a means towards achieving sustainable development.

THE GENESIS OF VEGINET

The 661 participants from 37 countries of the International Conference on Vegetables (ICV) held on 11-14 November, 2002, at Bangalore, India, discussed over 600 papers and posters presented on its 13 theme areas of scientific, technological and economic importance including Theme Area on TCDC. They strongly felt at the conclusion of the Conference that this phenomenal knowledge and much more of it that is globally available and will be available in the future should be collected, consolidated and easily retrieved and shared for appropriate use by the stakeholders.Therefore,the General Assembly of the Conference ICV-2002 decided to establish the Vegetable Science International Network (VEGINET).

During November 9-12, 2009, the VEGINET held its meeting along with the International Conference on Horticulture (ICH-2009) during the session : Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries (TCDC) in Bangalore. The General Assembly of 650 members from 40 countries met and discussed, (a) VEGINET Constitution, (b) revision of the registration fee, and (c) Executive Council was nominated and approved.

THE VISION

The goal of VEGINET is to strengthen partnership and inter-institutional cooperation among the member organizations of the vegetable sector towards improved production and utilization of vegetables.

THE RISING CHALLENGE

1) Population pressure and food demand

IFPRI (1999), suggested that global demand for cereals will increase by 39 percent between 1995 and 2020; for roots and tubers will increase by 37 percent. Data not available but the trend observed indicates higher demand of vegetables.

It is reported that, 35 million children under five years will be malnourished in 2020. (IFPRI, 1999).

In this context, the global endeavor for improved food security, the diversity of vegetable crops and their nutritional value are of special significance. Vegetables used throughout the world number in several hundreds.

2) Vegetable production and supply (Fresco and Baudoin, 2002)

§         The world production of fruits and vegetables was estimated 1,158 million metric tons in 2000 of which 692 million metric tons consisted of vegetables. Exports of fresh and processed vegetables rose from 19.7 million tons in 1990 to 32 million tons in 2000. The 32 million tons in 2000 represented 4.6% of total vegetable production and the value was US $22 billion.

 

§         The average vegetable supply available in the world is 102 kg per person per year with the highest level in Asia (116 kg) while the lowest level is found in South America (48 kg) and Africa (52 kg).

The FAO and WHO Report (Anonymous, 2004) recommended to 400-500 g of fruits and vegetables per capita per day as recommended intake towards health improvement and prevention of non-communicable diseases. 

 3) Peri-urban agriculture and vegetables production

Agricultural areas around big cities present certain advantages; supplying fresh vegetables to the urban consumers with reduced transport, packaging and storage expenses as well as reduced post harvest losses. Green zones within and green belts and around the cities will improve urban environment and provide employment to the urban poor.

4) Food Safety and Quality (Fresco and Baudoin, 2002)

•  The entry point to improving food safety would be to train farmers on the application of good agricultural practices (GAP) with considered use of pesticides and other inputs. FAO suggested Integrated Production and Pest Management (IPPM) as a means to ecologically sound production systems.

•  In industrialized countries, up to 30 percent of people suffer from food-borne illnesses every year. An estimated 70 percent of the approximately 1.5 billion annual cases of diarrhoea in the world are caused by biological contamination in foods. There is a tendency to develop a farm-to-consumer approach in order to get better control over the contamination risks at every link in the food chain.

THE OBJECTIVES OF VEGINET

The main objectives of the VEGINET is to:

• Strengthen and promote vegetable research and development by facilitating inter-and intra-regional and inter-institutional cooperation through exchange of scientific, technological and related economic information and in identifying priority areas of cooperative research and development, and, development of regional and interregional projects with specific time frame, objectives and outputs.

•  Promote partnership between public and private sector for improving vegetable production.

• Facilitate development of human resource through better education and training.

•  Promote improved and sustainable production of vegetables for food to provide nutritional security and economic empowerment of the farming community.

• Develop collaborative network for dissemination of information among the member organizations.

• Facilitate building of a sound and sustainable infrastructure of grading, packing, storage, roads, railways and water transport for perishable produce from farm-to-the-consumer and processor for holistic socio-economic development of the farming community.

TOWARDS A SOLUTION

It is time to recognize the gravity of the issues mentioned and the challenges they present to find economically sound and sustainable solutions for them. This can best be done by using better scientific, technological, economic and managerial capabilities. Under the existing situation, the most rapid means of increasing and improving food supplies is to harness the appropriate multi-disciplinary knowledge and human competence not only to produce but to protect the value added and to ensure its full realization. Stronger, more sustainable and viable linkages between production, post-harvest conservation, transport, processing and marketing are most urgently needed to maximize returns from all inputs to the producers and consumers.

 A real socio-economic transformation can be brought about by a sound programme of integrated development of the vegetable system (along with that of other perishables) and lead the agricultural economy to dramatic improvement. This approach calls for a clear new policy and strategy of action, with provision for course correction in sound implementation programme.

PARTNERSHIP OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

•  The vision is to promote partnerships in education, research, extension and development efforts in vegetable sector involving both the private and public sectors. The VEGINET may assist the private sector to have access to new technologies or generate materials developed in a developing country on mutual agreement basis of the donor and recipient partners.  Similarly, the private sector may provide training facilities to research institutions in developing countries and technology transfer, field trials, production or manufacturing process, marketing etc.

•  Develop collaborative network for dissemination of information among the member organizations.

•  The Bangalore Resolutions of ICV-2002 has highlighted the partnership role of international and regional institutions committed to vegetable sector such as FAO, AVRDC, CABI, CIAT, CIRAD, ISHS etc.,

MANDATE AND STRATEGY OF VEGINET

1.             Help identify priority areas for Development Research and formulate joint programmes of action to improve human competence to production, protection, processing marketing, distribution and better use of vegetables and other perishable produce as dietary components.

2.            Help developing countries to formulate policy, design strategy and programmes of action nationally, inter-regionally and globally to increase availability of vegetables in a sustainable manner.

3.          Using the existing Centers of Excellence build inter-institutional and inter-country networks to solve specific problems of mutual interest. The joint projects for solution of these problems should include professional bodies of scientists and technologists and associations of farmers, traders and industrialists. This will accelerate use of research results.

4.           Facilitate creation of National and Regional Technology Exchanges for collection, retrieval, and dissemination of knowledge to the users.

5.            Encourage, promote and facilitate international scientific and technological cooperation through exchange of personnel.

6.         A publication exchange programme should be developed for newsletters, journals, reports, pamphlets and books in specific areas of Vegetable Science & Technology and related areas for institutions to help maintain closer links between them.

7.            Provide assistance in building of new institutions and strengthening the existing ones for inclusion in the VEGINET, to deal with the problems where they actually exist.

8.           Promote and strengthen center(s) or special programmes for human resource development in management of R&D, DR, institutions and also technology assessment competence within processing industries.

9.          Create and maintain a global directory of professionals and/or establish a Human Resource Bank, from which expert consultants can be drawn by institutions and countries. Similarly, a directory of equipment manufacturers and suppliers should also be prepared. This can be covered by the existing institutions under contract and financed by advertisements and grants from the industry or bilateral agencies.

 

10.       VEGINET can act as a consultative body on vegetable science, technology and related economic matters that have an international or inter-regional dimension.

 

11.        Establish commissions and / or other functional bodies of VEGINET, to deal with specific scientific, technological and economic problems of the vegetable system.

 

12.     Take on any other activity to deal with the problem of vegetable science & technology that would contribute to raising production, ensure better crop and product protection and help to raise farm incomes for improving the quality of life.

 

RESOURCE GENERATION

Mobilize adequate financial resources for support of joint projects at institutions in the VEGINET. This could be done from contribution of countries, bilateral and multilateral agencies for developing strategic plans, external funding, including public and private sectors.

THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The General Assembly of VEGINET will be the policy making and programme planning body. It will have one representative of each member institution. The Executive Board, elected by the General Assembly will implement the decisions taken by the General Assembly and report to it. The primary duty of the Executive Board will be to conduct and manage all the official affairs of VEGINET between meetings of the General Assembly. This will include such specific responsibilities as preparation of budget, collection and disbursement of funds and supervision of its programme of work and of the VEGINET Secretariat. The Executive Board willalso be authorized to take specific policy decisions which would be endorsed / ratified by the General Assembly.

MEMBERSHIP

As decided by the General Assembly of the VEGINET on November 11, 2009, the membership of the VEGINET will be open to organizations/institutions and individual scientists actively engaged in Vegetable and related R&D, Technology Development, Protection and Processing, Marketing, Planning and Policy formulation and management.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FEE

Member	Developed country	Developing country
Institutional Member	US$ 1000	US$250
Member	US$100	US$25
Founder member	US$	US$12.50
		IRs600/-

PAYMENT MODE

The Payment be made by Bank Demand Draft or Cheque in favour of Dr. Prem Nath Agricultural Science Foundation (Project – VEGINET), SB. A/C No. 0417101040780 (for Rupees) or SB A/C No. 0417101039815 (for USD) and payable at Canara Bank, Vyalikaval, Bangalore – 560 003, Karnataka, INDIA. Bangalore – 560 003, Karnataka, INDIA.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

On November 11, 2009, during the TCDC Session of the International Conference on Horticulture (ICH-2009), the Executive Council of the VEGINET was formed with the nomination of new members. The following office bearers were elected:

Office	Name	Country
Chairperson	Dr. Prem Nath	India
Adviser from	Mrs. Alison Hodder	FAO
Regional Vice Chairpersons (5)	Dr. Ahmed Moustafa	UAE
	Dr. Michael Boehme	Germany
	Dr. J.S. Dias	Portugal
	Dr. Ravza Mavlyanova	Uzbekistan
	Dr. Usha R. Palaniswami	USA
Secretary General (HQ)	Dr. Anupam Varma	India
Assistant Secretary General	Dr. Aminuzzaman Talukder	Cambodia
Treasurer	Dr. O.P. Dutta	India
Member representingdifferent regions	Dr. Acram Taji	Australia
	Dr. O.O. Fadina	Nigeria
	Dr. Grisana Linwattana	Thailand
	Dr. Fu. Zetian	China