Taipei Times: You face a serious uphill battle to give the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVRDC) a new lease on life. What major plans do you have and what are the biggest hurdles ahead of you?
Thomas Lumpkin: The world in which AVRDC exists is very different today than it was 30 years ago when the center opened. Back then, the argument that food supplies would run out and mass starvation would occur did not come about as predicted. However, many areas of the world still suffer from severe poverty and malnutrition. In this context, vegetables play an even more important role than cereals.
Vegetables produce more than three times the economic value and employment on the same area of land compared to cereals like rice. The world on average has adequate supplies of starches, but still has difficulties in the vitamins, minerals and some essential amino acids that are supplied by vegetables. This has broadened the mission the center has and means that AVRDC will need to continue to build upon the globalization of its mission.
In fact, the realization of these nutrition and poverty needs has broadened the mission of the center and means that AVRDC will need to build up its global efforts especially among regions in Asia passed over by economic development, in the HIV/AIDS-afflicted areas of Africa and war-torn regions of the Middle East. I hope to more than double the size of the center, placing many scientists abroad to engage these malnourished and impoverished areas with development programs.
Through research, we will develop new technologies that make vegetables more nutritious and high yielding, even during difficult seasons like the monsoon. We will develop new varieties and production technologies that require less water and pesticides, are produced with less impact on the environment and can help tackle the problems caused by global climatic change. The major hurdles we face are a sense of complacency about food security and donor fatigue among the developed nations that fund our efforts.
■ Founded: 1971. ■ Headquarters: Shanhua, Tainan County, Taiwan. ■ Biodiversity: AVRDC has one of the world's most diverse and largest collections of vegetable germplasm, including underutilized indigenous species. ■ Staff: Over 25 internationally recruited professional staff, and over 200 locally recruited researchers, technical and administrative staff. ■ Improved technologies: AVRDC-improved vegetable lines and complementary production technologies are improving diets and incomes in over 80 countries. ■ Training: AVRDC conducts training in a broad range of subject areas, including plant protection, crop production, breeding and socio-economics. Graphic: TT
TT: As an international organization operating on a budget of less than US$10 million a year, how do you plan to increase funding and why should the nations of the world care?
Lumpkin: The world has become much smaller. Local problems now impact upon other nations right on their doorstep. Increased trade, transportation and communications means that nations cannot ignore the suffering going on in many parts of the world.
Moreover, such poverty and malnutrition have hurt economic growth and development as well, and it is in the best interest of all nations to ensure that sustainable economic development takes place throughout the world. AVRDC is undertaking bold and assertive efforts to bring this message to our potential donors, and to seek their support for our vision for the role of vegetables in relieving poverty and malnutrition.
TT: How does the AVRDC stay relevant when the facilities and much of the equipment are from the 1970s?
Lumpkin: This has been an issue that I have given a great deal of thought to prior to my appointment as director general. There are two billion poor and malnourished in the developing world, and we have a staff of only 25 international scientists. However, some situations have occurred which provide us with optimism.
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