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.
PHOTO: AVRDC
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.
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.
First, the rate of technological development has increased rapidly, especially within the last decade. Powerful new technological approaches have been developed that can allow a small team of scientists to have a major impact on vegetable production. Some of these technologies, such as marker-assisted breeding, allow us to identify and rapidly move new sources of disease resistance, flooding tolerance, high yield, etc. from one closely related species to our vegetable varieties through conventional plant breeding.
Such technologies mean that investment by the Center in updated equipment can have even more impact. Also, the abilities of our partners in countries around the world have developed so that we can focus more of our attention on upstream or much higher levels of technologies.
Finally, in the case of IT, communications and computers, our location has many opportunities and advantages in many high-tech areas. This means that while there will need to be more investment to upgrade the center's equipment and infrastructure, the gains from such investment will provide much greater impact.
TT: As the new director-general of the AVRDC, what special qualifications or skills do you bring to the team to lead the organization through these difficult times?
Lumpkin: Prior to my appointment, I was the chairman of the Crop and Soil Sciences Department at Washington State University (WSU). Over the past three decades, I was able to work closely with many of the scientists involved in international agricultural development within the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and some AVRDC scientists as well. I spent many years on development projects and research in China, India, Japan, North Korea, the Philippines, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Therefore, I have a thorough understanding of the system and the issues the developing world faces. At the same time, however, as the manager of research, teaching and extension in an agronomy department, I dealt with matters that are becoming increasingly important for many international research centers, such as funding and efficiency, and the role of IPR and biotechnology.
TT: How can partnering with industry potentially help create a new revenue stream?
Lumpkin: Many nations of the developed world have become complacent about food security and global poverty. They have reduced their support for alleviating these problems. This means that the center will need to explore new areas of funding and build strategic alliances to survive. This will benefit the centers since it will inject new lines of communication and bring new ways of thinking into the system. For those business partners who collaborate with us, the opportunity for exploring new markets will occur. However, the issue of making for-profit partnerships to fund our mission to support the world's poor is controversial and could repel some traditional donors. Thus, we must seek a delicate balance in this approach.
TT: What plans do you have to bring in management people from the private sector and what is the strategy behind that push?
Lumpkin: It is becoming increasingly important to bring in people of different backgrounds and skills to help provide new ideas and energy into the field of international agricultural research. Thirty years ago, research centers were largely managed by scientists, but over the years, the global community realized that many of their technological developments were not being adopted due to failure to enlist and foster the business community in their application.
In today's world, an increasing need for fund-raising and organizational development have also meant that professional managers have a role in the running of research institutes, especially those that have now developed into large, global organizations. Also, 30 years ago, computers and information technology (IT) were only beginning to be important. Today, there are few if any industries which do not depend on sophisticated IT systems. Thus, we are employing specialists from the private sector to develop IT at AVRDC.
TT: Do you have any plans to forge alliances with the private sector?
Lumpkin: We have already developed alliances with seed and plant technology companies and are exploring opportunities in the IT industry and health sectors, to name a few. This has been a theme that has been emerging not just here at AVRDC, but throughout the international agricultural research system. For some companies, new opportunities and profits will be motives; others will have humanitarian and public relations objectives.
TT: What about IPR? How do you convince companies to give you their IPR on various vegetables to help the world's poor?
Lumpkin: The whole public research system is trying to come up with answers on how to create public goods while paying attention to IPR. Intellectual property rights for many critical new technologies are held by private companies. We are free to use these technologies to develop new products but are not allowed to release them to the public. For example, permission for the release of golden rice took about 70 permissions from about 50 different sources, and at a huge legal expense.
Some companies are willing to collaborate with the center and allow access to their IPRs for use in the developing world. This generosity will improve their image as a good global citizen. Companies already spend billions of US dollars annually on ways to improve their image and good public relations. Releasing some IPRs for humanitarian use is becoming an important corporate strategy.
On the concern side, this means that centers like ours will need to be more knowledgeable about the legal issues related to IPR. Again, this means more professionalization within the organization and perhaps more opportunities to bring experts from other fields into the system.
TT: What progress has the center made in developing disease resistant vegetables and varieties that will grow in the off-season?
Lumpkin: AVRDC has been a leader in the development of vegetables which are more resistant against the diseases, insect pests and unfavorable conditions found in the tropics. To name a few successes, we have developed tomatoes which are resistant against bacterial wilt -- a major tomato disease -- and have developed tomato production systems that are productive under the humidity and flooding of monsoon summers. We also developed heat-tolerant Chinese cabbage, and peppers resistant to the major tropical disease anthracnose. In addition, AVRDC has developed integrated pest management technologies that have helped farmers throughout the world protect their crops with fewer pesticides against devastating pests which often completely destroyed potential harvests.
TT: With some of the AVRDC's research resulting in new strains of disease-free, vitamin-enhanced vegetables, could patenting these products or technologies provide a new source of funding?
Lumpkin: The center is a non-profit organization. Our mission is to create technologies which help the farmers and populations in the world's most neglected places. However, as a side effect, many of our developments have also proven profitable to businesses and farmers in the developed world.
Many international centers and public universities are considering or have initiated efforts to capture financial return from their IPR, however for most technological developments, especially for minor crops, the legal cost for obtaining and enforcing IPR would be far more than the expected financial return. IPR can also become a major hindrance to the furthering of science through its restriction on the flow and application of ideas.
TT: With the world's agricultural sector dominated by big companies that use agricultural technologies only for profit, how can a non-profit center like the AVRDC compete?
Lumpkin: Businesses prosper when new markets develop. Countries which were once poor are now commanding the attention of major corporations as important markets for their businesses. We are not focused on those developed markets; most are already well served by companies.
We are focusing on regions with unattractive or non-existent markets and where the producers, consumers and environment are suffering. We are asking companies and donors to assist our efforts in helping these impoverished regions to be well nourished and develop products for the global market.
Everyone wins when the global market grows. We must keep in mind the relationship between poverty and malnutrition.
Malnourishment prevents a child from reaching full mental and physical development. An impaired and lethargic adult cannot apply the energy and creativity to allow themselves and their children to escape this cycle.
TT: What successes has the center had with transferring new vegetable varieties successfully to domestic farmers?
Lumpkin: There have been many success stories, globally as well as domestically. Our lines have strengthened and even built mungbean production industries in several countries of East Asia and South Asia. In South and Southeast Asia as well as Africa, our tomatoes for the humid tropics are allowing abundant production during the summer monsoons.
We will soon release new varieties of peppers that will overcome the major disease of the monsoon season as well. For Taiwan, AVRDC-improved lines in fresh market tomato, processing tomato, Chinese cabbage, mungbean, soybean and vegetable soybean were named and released to farmers by local agricultural improvement stations.
For tomato and vegetable soybean, five new varieties meant annual increases in domestic farmers' incomes of US$13.5 million and US$21 million, respectively.
Our varieties raised the yield potential of tropical tomatoes from only five tonnes per hectare to 45. We promoted year-round production of tomatoes, and this crop is one of the most important for farmers' income as well as nutritionally for consumers. AVRDC doubled and tripled the yield of mungbean, with about 5.5 million hectares planted to AVRDC-derived mungbean cultivars in Asia.
For vegetable soybean, we developed improved tropical vegetable soybean varieties which are now planted in 93 percent of the total vegetable growing area of the tropics. Overall, nearly 200 countries are using AVRDC vegetable germplasm for production, research and development.
TT: What research has the center done on indigenous vegetables?
Lumpkin: This is an area of research which will prove increasingly important in the future as sources of vegetable diversity for the public and for new sources of genes for improving nutrition, yield and resistance to harsh environments, pests and diseases. We are working with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Taiwan's Council of Agriculture (COA) and the German GTZ to collect, characterize, improve and distribute indigenous vegetables. They will provide more income opportunities for farmers and food production in harsh environments while also improving diets due to high micronutrient levels.
Surprisingly, while there are thousands of plants grown as vegetables, few are cultivated globally. Some of these indigenous varieties are related to major vegetable varieties and possess desirable traits for disease resistance which can be used to improve the major varieties. For East Asia, there are many indigenous vegetables, such as kangkong, that are eaten regularly here.
If promoted globally and adapted to local cooking styles found in those regions, this may help local farmers, following the path of vegetable soybean around the world. Indigenous vegetable research is an expanding part of our own efforts. AVRDC's Dr. Liwayway Engle is heading a project funded by ADB to collect, conserve and utilize indigenous vegetables.
This project is helping ensure these indigenous treasures do not go into extinction before their true value is realized.
TT: How has the creation of genetically modified foods, or frankenfoods, hurt your research or funding?
Lumpkin: The public has increasing anxiety and concern about consumption of GMO crops. This concern has been exacerbated by company mishandling and totally unrelated issues like mad cow disease, hoof and mouth disease and human cloning.
This technology has a revolutionary potential to benefit human nutrition and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. My greatest fear is that through corporate mishandling and the failure of governments to develop effective regulatory systems, the public may reject the safe application of this technology to food production.
At the present, AVRDC is doing research in this area but will not attempt to release any product without acceptance by the public. Likewise, the center has a responsibility in helping to educate the public on the role biotechnology may play in feeding the world. Certainly, this issue has made scientists and research centers think more carefully and be more aware of consumers' concerns.
TT: How could Taiwan's role as a technology leader help disseminate information to farmers?
Lumpkin: Effective dissemination of information is a question many international centers are considering. One of the best advantages an international center like AVRDC has is that we have a multinational team, and have built strategic research networks throughout nearly every region of the globe.
We work through our partners, often at the governmental and research institute level in each country, providing information to them so they can communicate it with their farmers.
Information technology will help us connect to the farmer in the developing world, even if indirectly through national researchers and companies who have access.
Often, vegetable farmers are younger, have a higher education level, and a higher income level then non-vegetable farmers. This means to us that utilizing IT to get the message out stands a better chance of success, especially with multilingual service.
TT: Any future plans to bring in mainland scientists to the center and what is blocking that from happening?
Lumpkin: The AVRDC is an international center and Taiwan is our host country. We have always had to consider and are impacted by geopolitical issues. Our goal is to help needy farmers and consumers, wherever they are, without concern for the politics of the region where they reside.
Over the past three decades, AVRDC has seen China, Taiwan and their relationship change. The relationship in some ways is now more open and one only needs to see the numbers of high-tech companies from Taiwan working in China to understand this. Another example is the discussion in Taiwan to allow Mainland China's businessmen to reside here.
My expectation is that AVRDC will employ the best qualified scientists from any country in the world, including China.
It has been AVRDC's experience that international scientific collaboration, communication and exchange have benefited all involved, and have raised the level of science in the participating countries.
TT: Any plans to open a center in China in the future?
Lumpkin: AVRDC, with limited resources, must plan carefully on where it can have the most impact. China has made major contributions to agricultural research, so much so that it is often a donor rather than a recipient in terms of technology.
We need to partner with countries which can contribute to those who are in need. China has hundreds of millions of rural poor living in regions remote from the coastal economic development.
AVRDC has already engaged the needs of China's poor through scientific exchanges here and training at our regional center in Thailand.
We welcome opportunities to collaborate with scientists in China and would seriously consider an offer to open a center there that would serve the needs of its poor.
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