Through the Taiwan Asia Vegetable Initiative (TAsVI) project, the Philippine vegetable germplasm deposited at the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) in Tainan, Taiwan, will be turned over and placed under the care of the National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory of the Institute of Plant Breeding (NPGRL-IPB) in UPLB.
The turnover will be held during the Seed Homecoming Ceremony on September 25, 2024, at the IPB Seminar Room.
The TAsVI project aims to strengthen international collaboration in rescuing and safeguarding vegetable biodiversity in Asia to ensure climate-resilient and healthy food systems and to repatriate seeds of over 3,000 accessions of unique and lost vegetable varieties collected in the 1990s and 2000s by national genebanks and the WorldVeg back to Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The 1,231 vegetable accessions to be repatriated to the Philippines include seeds of soybean, onion, Malabar spinach, ash gourd, lablab, bottle gourd, luffa, bitter gourd, tomato, pepper, black gram, yardlong bean, cowpea, eggplant, field mustard, blue ternetea, cabbage, mungbean, watermelon, and malunggay.
The repatriated accessions will be regenerated by NPGRL at its experimental station and will undergo morphological characterization from seedling to post-harvest. Accessions of tomato, pepper, eggplant and yardlong bean have been identified as crops to be characterized.
Expected to be at the event are the following: Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines (TECO) Ambassador; Philippine Secretary of Agriculture; Director of Engagement of WorldVeg; Director of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI); UPLB Chancellor; UPLB Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Extension (OVCRE); Executive Committee of the College of Agriculture and Food Science (CAFS); academicians, national scientists; and members of the IPB Council of Elders, and executive and management committee.
NPGRL aims to continue to bolster collaborations with Taiwan and with other countries. Apart from the conservation and management of plant genetic resources, enhancing public awareness on the value of crop germplasm in the Philippines is a core mission of NPGRL.
The researchers and curators of NPGRL will continue to share their expertise and technical know-how to assist regions in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao in establishing their own community seed banks, contributing to a sustainable seed system.
TAsVI is funded by the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is implemented by the World Vegetable Center, in partnership with the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, National Plant Genetic Resources Center; Malaysia Agriculture Research and Development Institute (MARDI) Horticulture Research Centre; UPLB-IPB, and Bureau of Plant Industries (BPI), the Philippines; Kasetsart University Tropical Vegetable Research Center (TVRC), and Department of Agriculture Horticulture Research Institute national genebank, Thailand; Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS), Plant Resource Center (PRC) and Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute (FAVRI), Vietnam.