This poster was presented at the Horticulture Innovation Lab's 2010 Inception Workshop in Singapore by Dyno Keatinge, as a board member of the program's international advisory board. 

Active vegetable collection

The active germplasm collection at AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center's Regional Center for Africa contains more than 2,000 accessions of indigenous and exotic vegetables originating from 33 African countries. Many accessions are landraces and indigenous varieties in danger of being lost as farmers adopt new high yielding, high value crops.

Crop diversity includes African amaranth species, different species of African eggplant (including Solanum aethiopicum, Solanum macrocarpon and Solanum anguivi) and a variety of lines within Solanum aethiopicum.

Evaluating germplasm for desirable horticultural traits

The collection provides vegetable breeders with a diverse genetic base to develop lines with desirable traits, such as pest and disease resistance, adaptation to various agroecologies, high yield, and nutritional quality. Some promising varieties have been selected directly from accessions. At participatory variety trials, farmers rank lines for marketability and other traits.

Some tomato varieties released from World Vegetable Center germplasm include Kiboko, Meru, Tanya and Tengeru 97.