‘Vegetable revolution’ a sustainable solution to food insecurity—seed expert

A revolution in hybrid vegetable varieties would help address the food challenges around the globe, according to World Food Prize 2019 winner and East-West Seed founder Simon Groot.

Some 2.3 million families in the Philippines said that they experienced hunger in the first quarter of 2019, according to a Social Weather Stations survey.

Meanwhile, a United Nations report—The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2018—showed that 821 million people or 1 in every 9 people globally suffered from hunger in 2017.

The Dutch seedsman Groot said he founded the East-West Seed firm in the Philippines with Filipino seed trader Benito Domingo in 1982 with the vision of uplifting the lives of farmers in Southeast Asia through innovative agricultural products.

“When I first visited Southeast Asia many years ago, it pained me to see so many small farmers struggling to make a living,” Groot said.

Through an established partnership, experts from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands and University of the Philippines Los Baños developed hybrid varieties of vegetables such as bitter gourd, tomato, eggplant, pumpkin, yard-long bean, onion, and kangkong.

These revolutionary seeds feature enhanced disease resistance and guarantees higher yields for farmers, according to East-West Seed.

It added that more than 20 million farmers in Asia, Africa and Latin America were reaping the benefits of its over 900 hybrid vegetable varieties.

The 2019 World Food Prize recognized the seed company’s contribution to the industry in the past four decades. Groot will formally receive the award at Iowa in the US this upcoming October. —Dona Magsino/VDS, GMA News