A foundation behind a seed bank project on Tuesday announced plans to grow vegetables from Southeast Asian nations where they might have gone extinct.
The Tainan-based World Vegetable Center announced at an event that its seed project, which it started about 30 years ago, would allow it to grow vegetables from seeds gathered in other nations to export back to those places.
World Vegetable Center director Wo Pei-jui (沃培睿) said that climate change and produce that is more commercially popular have changed what is grown, with some varieties of vegetables that are nutrition-rich and more adaptable slowly disappearing from gardens and farms.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
Chen Yen-kuang (陳彥匡), a research assistant at the World Vegetable Center’s seed conservation division, said that from 1990 to 2000 it collected seeds from 14 countries, including Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and India.
The center has collected the seeds of more than 9,000 types of vegetables, Chen said.
Adding that to what has been traded and gifted, the center has seeds of more than 22,000 varieties of vegetables from more than 183 species, he said.
The project prioritizes varieties and species that are already extinct or have not been conserved in the country of origin, Chen said, adding that the World Vegetable Center’s dedicated fields are growing 160 different varieties.
The varieties reflect the distinct cuisines of different countries, he said.
For instance, Taiwanese prefer elongated eggplants, while Vietnam grows smaller eggplants that are yellow, while Cambodia has round eggplants that are larger than an adult’s fist, he said.
In Taiwan, edible amaranth is green, while in India it is reddish-purple, the center said.
Thailand Trade and Economic Office Executive Director Twekiat Janprajak, who attended the event at the World Vegetable Center in Tainan’s Shanhua District (善化), said that Thai amaranth, green peas, bell peppers, eggplants and ochre at the center’s fields brought back fond memories of meals he ate in his home nation.
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