Agriculture, Africa’s economic key sector will receive a major boost through joint efforts between AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation will support the World Vegetable Center’s program to produce adapted vegetable varieties and establish vegetable seed sectors in sub-Saharan Africa. With an initial budget of over $12 million the first phase of the project begins in December 2006.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the only major region in the world where poverty is increasing rather than decreasing, and where human development indicators are worsening. A major need is to improve incomes and options in agriculture which accounts for 30 to 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in most African countries, and provides livelihoods to around 80-90% of the African population.

Investments in agriculture can bring improvements in the livelihoods of the poor in Africa’s rural, peri-urban and urban areas. “Vegetables have the highest potential for creating jobs and additional income among the various types of food crops, and can foster rural development”, says Thomas Lumpkin, the Center’s Director General. “The enhanced consumption of vegetables and the greater dietary diversity they provide can also help to alleviate micronutrient malnutrition that is a cause of chronic diseases, blindness and weakened immune systems particularly among children and mothers. Vegetables are one of the most cost-effective and sustainable solutions to micronutrient deficiencies which affect far more people than hunger alone.” This is crucial in most of sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita vegetable consumption is well below the minimum level of 200 g/day recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

African vegetable production continues to rely on old or imported European varieties which are often unsuited to the disease and climatic stresses encountered in Africa. The project will deliver 150 new vegetable varieties in cooperation with African seed companies. Work will be centered in Tanzania, Madagascar, Cameroon and Mali to reach the different key agro-climatic zones of Africa.

The World Vegetable Center was founded in 1971 as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC). Headquartered in Taiwan, it has major regional centers in Tanzania, India and Thailand and program offices in five other developing countries. It is the world’s leading vegetable research and development center.