University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
Hans-Ruthenberg Institute, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany,
World Rev Nutr Diet. 2020;121:42-59. doi: 10.1159/000507518. Epub 2020 Oct 6.
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.
水果和蔬菜（F+Vs）可以在解决营养双重负担问题方面发挥重要作用。农业研究可以帮助提高水果和蔬菜生产的生产力和资源利用效率，从而降低价格，使这些商品能够更多地供应给贫困家庭。然而，包括其核心机构国际农业研究磋商组织（CGIAR）在内的国际农业研究系统的作物研究迄今为止主要集中在主食谷物和淀粉类粮食作物上，而在很大程度上忽视了大多数 F+Vs。如果不将木薯、各种类型的土豆、香蕉及其亲缘植物视为蔬菜，那么目前没有一个 CGIAR 中心专门从事水果或蔬菜研究。本文探讨了 CGIAR 没有关注 F+Vs 的背后原因。早期对粮食主食作物的重视是基于这样一种认识，即当时的饥饿问题主要是食物能量的缺乏。国际农业研究在其中发挥了关键作用的绿色革命的成功，进一步刺激了人们进一步强调提高主食谷物的生产力，将其作为战胜饥饿的主要战略。然而，F+Vs 受到的关注有限。台湾亚洲蔬菜研究发展中心是在 CGIAR 系统之外创建的。20 世纪 90 年代，CGIAR 系统增加了新的中心，但没有利用这个机会创建一个专门的 F+Vs 中心。一些非正式的 F+Vs 研究活动也在 CGIAR 系统的其他几个中心开展，这是基于这样一种认识，即 F+Vs 虽然规模较小，但却是发展中国家许多农业系统的重要组成部分。本文通过分析 CGIAR 系统对 F+Vs 关注较少的原因，对将这些“被忽视”的商品更好地纳入国际农业研究工作的未来战略进行了评估。评估表明，遗传改良或许最好主要留给私营部门，而国际农业研究可以更好地专注于制定综合虫害管理、生物虫害控制和提高水利用效率的战略，因为这些领域私营公司投资的积极性有限。此外，公共资助的研究可以帮助找到与基础设施相关的方面的低成本解决方案，如收获后处理和储存（例如，冷却和干燥），在这些方面，可再生能源有很大的潜力。
