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Vegaetable research center will remain in Taiwan

The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC, 亞蔬中心) will not relocate out of Taiwan within the next five years, its chief said yesterday.

Seed bank AVRDC, located in Shanhua in the southern county of Tainan, is the only international organization to have its headquarters in Taiwan. The non-profit research organization, founded in 1971 with funds donated by Taiwan, the US, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank, is aimed at helping developing countries overcome the problems of poverty.

With Taiwan evolving from an agricultural backwater to an industrial powerhouse, it has become a concern in recent years as to whether the AVRDC is still necessary in Taiwan and whether it should continue its operations here.

However, AVRDC Director-General Samson Tsou (鄒箎生) said the center's latest five-year development project does not mention any relocation plan.

"The center is not expected to move its headquarters out of Taiwan over the next five years," said Tsou, who joined the AVRDC when the center began formal operations in 1973 and is scheduled to retire at the end of this year.

The center has long been troubled by funding shortages, Tsou said. Noting that the AVRDC's annual budget has stayed at US$10 million for the past decade, he said that donations from other countries have continued to increase in recent years.

"But donations for the center's regular personnel fees have declined and personnel costs have become our biggest financial burden," he said.

Taiwan has been the AVRDC's top donor, offering NT$110 million (US$3.14 million) in aid annually, or about one-third of the center's annual budget, Tsou said.

Council of Agriculture Chairman Fan Chen-tsung (范振宗) said last week that the council will raise its annual donation to the AVRDC to NT$140 million from next year.

Over the past three decades, Tsou said, the AVRDC has developed more than 300 new varieties of vegetable and grain for cultivation in 86 countries around the world.

"Some 50 countries now produce commercial quantities of the vegetable varieties developed by the center," he said.
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