Fruits and Vegetables in International Agricultural Research: A Case of Neglect?

Fruits and vegetables (F+Vs) can play an important role in combatting the problem of the double burden of malnutrition. Agricultural research can help to increase the productivity and the resource-use efficiency of fruit and vegetable production and, thus, reduce prices so that these commodities can become more available to poor households. However, the crops research of the international agricultural research system, including its centerpiece the CGIAR, has so far concentrated mainly on staple grains and starchy food crops, while largely neglecting most F+Vs. None of the current CGIAR centers is specifically dedicated to fruits or vegetables if the convention is followed not to consider cassava, potatoes of all types, and bananas and their relatives as vegetables. The underlying reasons why the CGIAR has not focused on F+Vs are explored in this review. The early emphasis on food staple crops was motivated by the perception that the hunger problems of the era were primarily deficiencies in food energy. The success of the Green Revolution, in which international agricultural research played a key role, stimulated further emphasis on increasing the productivity of staple grains as the major strategy to combat hunger. F+Vs, however, received limited attention. The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center in Taiwan was created outside the CGIAR system. In the 1990s new centers were added to the CGIAR system, but this opportunity was not used to create a dedicated center for F+Vs. Some informal activities to conduct research on F+Vs also took place in several other CGIAR centers as part of the farming systems research activities, based on the recognition that F+Vs are small but important elements of many farming systems of the developing world. Through an analysis of the reasons why the CGIAR system has tended little to F+Vs, this paper presents an assessment of possible future strategies to better integrate these "neglected" commodities into international agricultural research efforts. The assessment shows that genetic improvement might perhaps best be largely left to the private sector, while international agricultural research could better focus on developing strategies for integrated pest management, biological pest control, and improved water use efficiency, as these are areas where private companies have limited incentives to invest. Moreover, publicly funded research could help to find low-cost solutions for infrastructure-related aspects such as postharvest handling and storage (e.g., cooling and drying), aspects where renewable energy sources have a substantial potential.