Andreas Ebert

• Dr. Sc. agr.
• Consultant at World Vegetable Center

Agriculture is under pressure to produce greater quantities of food, feed and biofuel on limited land resources. Current over-reliance on a handful of major staple crops has inherent agronomic, ecological, nutritional and economic risks and is probably unsustainable in the long run. Wider use of today’s underutilized minor crops provides more optio...

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center maintains the world's largest international public col-lection of vegetable genetic resources at its headquarters in Taiwan. The ex situ conservation and dissemination of germplasm to researchers and breeders worldwide contributes to global food and nutrition security but also carries considerable costs. The objec...

This study determined the level of phytonutrients in mungbean and soybean sprouts compared to mature mungbean grain and vegetable soybean. The comparison included landraces and improved mungbean and soybean varieties to assess the effect of breeding on the phytonutrient content of both crops. Sprouting mungbean enhanced vitamin C content 2.7-fold c...

Malnutrition, comprising undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and overnutrition, is more widespread than hunger per se and affects most nations around the globe. The diversity and the quality of food produced and consumed are decisive factors when addressing the triple burden of malnutrition. In this context, fruit, vegetables, and nuts are in...

Preface to ”Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources” The foundation of our global food supply is based on the result of thousands of years of crop selection and improvements made to wild and semi-domesticated species, crop wild relatives, and landraces, which have given rise to present-day cultivated crop varieties. In addition, in many parts of t...

Chapter 3 of the State of the World Report assesses the status in 2022 of ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources at the global level and includes collecting, storage, safety duplication, characterization and regeneration, germplasm health, documentation and distribution of germplasm materials as well as some general topics such as the degr...

Summary (by the Publisher) This Special Issue critically reviews the history of global conservation and use efforts that have been undertaken over the past 70 years to curb genetic erosion of our crop plant gene pools for the benefit of humankind. With the worldwide establishment of genebanks to conserve the threatened genetic resources for the lo...

This Special Issue critically reviews the history of global conservation and use efforts that have been undertaken over the past 70 years to curb genetic erosion of our crop plant gene pools for the benefit of humankind. With the worldwide establishment of genebanks to conserve the threatened genetic resources for the long term, the establishment o...

Genetic resources serve as the foundation of our food supply and are building blocks for the development of new crop varieties that support sustainable crop production in the face of climate change, as well as for the delivery of healthy diets to a continuously growing global population. With the encouragement of the FAO and with technical guidance...

Among the most important users of plant genetic resources, conserved predominantly in public genebanks around the world, are public and private plant breeders. Through their breeding efforts, they contribute significantly to global, regional, and local food and nutrition security. Plant breeders need genetic diversity to be able to develop competit...

This Entry into Encyclopedia of MPDI is based on a peer-review paper in the journal Plants (Critical Review of the Increasing Complexity of Access and Benefit-Sharing Policies of Genetic Resources for Genebank Curators and Plant Breeders–A Public and Private Sector Perspective, Plants, Volume 12, Issue 16, 10.3390/plants12162992). The Entry can be...

Plant breeders develop competitive, high-yielding, resistant crop varieties that can cope with the challenges of biotic stresses and tolerate abiotic stresses, resulting in nutritious food for consumers worldwide. To achieve this, plant breeders need continuous and easy access to plant genetic resources (PGR) for trait screening, to generate new di...

This Special Issue of Plants is dedicated to the eminent scientist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (1887–1943) in remembrance of his 135th birthday on 25 November 1887 [...]

With the growing interest of society in healthy eating, the interest in fresh, ready-to-eat, functional food, such as microscale vegetables (sprouted seeds and microgreens), has been on the rise in recent years globally. This review briefly describes the crops commonly used for microscale vegetable production, highlights Brassica vegetables because...

This entry of the open access journal Encyclopedia of MDPI is based on an earlier publication 'A Critical Review of the Current Global Ex Situ Conservation System for Plant Agrobiodiversity. I. History of the Development of the Global System in the Context of the Political/Legal Framework and Its Major Conservation Components' is open for editing b...

In this paper, we review gene bank operations that have an influence on the global conservation system, with the intention to identify critical aspects that should be improved for optimum performance. We describe the role of active and base collections and the importance of linking germplasm conservation and use, also in view of new developments in...

The history of ex situ conservation is relatively short, not more than a century old. During the middle of last century, triggered by the realization that genetic erosion was threatening the existing landraces and wild relatives of the major food crops, global efforts to collect and conserve the genetic diversity of these threatened resources were...

The history of ex situ conservation is relatively short, not more than a century old. During the middle of last century, triggered by the realization that genetic erosion was threatening the existing landraces and wild relatives of the major food crops, global efforts to collect and conserve the genetic diversity of these threatened resources were...

Plant biodiversity is the foundation of our present-day food supply (including functional food and medicine) and offers humankind multiple other benefits in terms of ecosystem functions and resilience to climate change, as well as other perturbations. This Special Issue on ‘Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources’ comprises 32 papers covering a wi...

Okra and water spinach are traditional vegetables that are vital for healthy diets. Major variations in germination response have been observed among genebank entries. This study was undertaken to elucidate the effect of various seed treatments on the germination of fresh and stored seed of okra and water spinach. Freshly harvested fruits of two ok...

Vegetables can be defined as the edible portion of usually herbaceous plants. Vegetables comprise a broad range of genera and species and are an important component of a healthy diet, providing vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, fiber, amino acids and other health‐promoting compounds for nutritional security. This chapter provides an overview of glo...

This chapter focuses on approaches to sustainable vegetable production systems for food and nutrition security under climate change in sub‐Saharan Africa and Asia. Peri‐urban and urban agriculture offer high employment and income possibilities for the urban population, but where these cities are left unmanaged, urbanization goes hand in hand with p...

This review article gives an account of the origin, domestication, and dispersal of taro, a staple food crop in many countries in the humid tropics and subtropics. Genetic diversity studies indicated that distinct gene pools exist in all the regions where taro may be naturally distributed-the Indian subcontinent, China, Southeast Asia, and in Ocean...

The genus Capsicum (2n = 24) comprises a diverse group of plants producing pungent (hot pepper syn. chili pepper) or non-pungent (sweet pepper) fruits valued as spices and vegetables. The genus originated in the arid regions of the Andes mountains (present-day Peru and Bolivia) and later spread to the tropical lowlands of the Americas. The domestic...

Malnutrition is widespread and affects about one-third of humanity. Increasing production and consumption of vegetables is an obvious pathway to improve dietary diversity, nutrition and health. This chapter analyses how climate change is affecting vegetable production, with a special focus on the spread of insect pests and diseases. A thorough lite...

Moringa (Moringa oleifera) is a perennial softwood vegetable tree widely grown in the tropics of Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. Most parts of the tree are edible. The leaves and flowers are eaten as salad, as cooked vegetables, added to soups and sauces, or used to make tea. The young, tender pods – known as drumsticks – are highly va...

The World Vegetable Center has a collection of over 50 moringa accessions, majority of which belong to M. oleifera. The planting of this species in southern Taiwan started some 35 years ago. The World Vegetable Center initiated research on moringa in 2001. A small project was established to introduce and evaluate a number of moringa accessions coll...

It is highly unlikely that there is another food plant equal or superior to drumstick in terms of its combination of nutritive, medicinal and disease preventive value, drought tolerance and ability to flourish on poor soils. This study used a genotype-environment approach to survey foliar mineral and carotenoid levels in a range of leafy vegetables...

In Sustainable Development Goal 2, the UN has sought to abolish both hunger and malnutrition by ensuring the continuous supply of sufficient, wholesome food enabling people to shift towards adopting healthier, well-balanced diets. In addition, it calls for the establishment of new ways to reduce current food wastage, farming in a manner which conse...

Principal component analysis (PCA) with 36,621 polymorphic genome-anchored single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified collectively for Capsicum annuum and Capsicum baccatum was used to characterize population structure and species domestication of these two important incompatible cultivated pepper species. Estimated mean nucleotide diversity...

List of Capsicum annuum and C. baccatum pepper accessions used in the current study.

Fixation index (FST) values for individual SNPs across chromosomes of C. baccatum genome.

Haplotype blocks across the cultivated C. baccatum genome.

Eigen values for the first two PCA components estimated for various accessions belonging to C. baccatum.

Linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis of adjacent SNP pairs across the C. baccatum genome.

Details of significantly associated SNPs as revealed by genome-wide association study.

LD analysis (r2) of SNPs located in genes showing most associations within 5 kb.

Eigen values for the first two components from principle component analysis (PCA) estimated for various accessions belonging to C. annuum and C. baccatum.

Phenotypic data for mean peduncle length (cm) for 217 C. baccatum var. pendulum accessions.

LD analysis (r2) based on adjacent SNPs within haplotypes showing most associations within 20 kb.

Average air temperature variation in the period 1975-2011 was analyzed across 34 locations from a broad range of Mesoamerican countries with the view to better inform agricultural scientists of what changes to expect up to, and including, the year 2025. Such changes are likely to influence a range of constraints to agricultural and horticultural pr...

This study aimed to analyze 123 genotypes of Capsicum baccatum L. originating from 22 countries, at two stages of fruit development, for vitamin C content and its relationship with reducing sugars in fruit pericarp. Among the parametric population, vitamin C and reducing sugar concentrations ranged between 2.54 to 50.44 and 41 to 700 mg g-1 DW of p...

Wild relatives of vegetable crops as sources for abiotic and biotic resistance are likely to become more important in the future. Climate change and emerging pathogens, and population growth and increased demand for vegetables will prompt investment in breeding to expand vegetable production. Improved technologies, especially genomics-assisted bree...

Indigenous (traditional) vegetables are best defined as species that are locally important for the sustainability of economies, human nutrition and health, and social systems - but which have yet to attain global recognition to the same extent as major vegetable commodities such as tomato or cabbage. Given the hundreds of indigenous vegetables cons...

Association analysis was conducted in a core collection of 94 genotypes of Solanum pimpinellifolium to identify variations linked to salt tolerance traits (physiological and yield traits under salt stress) in four candidate genes viz., DREB1A, VP1.1, NHX1, and TIP. The candidate gene analysis covered a concatenated length of 4594 bp per individual...

Momordica charantia L., called bitter gourd, bitter melon or balsam pear, was likely domesticated in India and southern China and is now found naturalized and widely cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics for its immature fruit. In Asia, the tender shoot tips are consumed as a healthy leafy vegetable. Bitter gourd is of high nutritional v...

Large ex situ germplasm collections generally harbor a wide range of crop diversity. AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center is holding in trust the world's second largest mungbean (Vigna radiata) germplasm collection with more than 6,700 accessions. Screening large collections for traits of interest is laborious and expensive. To enhance the access of...

Chili pepper (Capsicum spp.) is an important commercial crop for smallholders in India, where C. annuum is the most widely cultivated species for its pungent (chili pepper) and non-pungent (sweet pepper) fruits. During 2012-13, India exported chili pepper and derived products worth about 410 million US $. Over the past 13 years (2001-2013), AVRDC –...

Traditional vegetables and vegetable legumes can be a source of readily available daily sustenance when grown in home or kitchen gardens. Lower income groups that lack access to or cannot afford global vegetables and animal protein sources would benefit greatly from the increased availability and consumption of traditional vegetables. Phytonutrient...

Ethnic vegetables and greens, heirloom vegetables, miniature or baby vegetables, the even-smaller forms of sprouts and microgreens, and edible flowers comprise a range of specialty vegetable produce for niche markets with considerable growth potential. Sprouts and microgreens in particular are benefiting from a trend toward healthier eating and are...

Moringa is one of the world's most useful trees, as almost every part of it can be used for food or has some other beneficial property. The nutritional value of moringa and its medicinal potential is used for food diversification and fortification. Moringa is a perennial softwood tree and is an important crop in Asia, Central and Latin America, the...

Chilli (Capsicum annuum) is an important commercial and export-oriented crop in India. In this paper, an overview of chilli breeding research in India has been given.Germplasm sources resistant to Chili/pepper leaf curl virus (ChiLCV) Chili veinal mottle virus (ChiMoV), Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), anthracnose, bacterial wilt, nematodes and powdery...

Moringa oleifera, a tree cultivated in many tropical countries, has great potential to contribute to the nourishment of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. All parts of the moringa tree—bark, fruit, leaves, nuts, seeds, tubers, roots, and flowers—are edible. Moringa products, from fresh leaves to extracts, decoctions, poultices, creams, oils,...

Genebank Manager Andreas Ebert introduces the efforts of one globally mandated research centre to encourage healthy eating and increase production of nutritious vegetables.

This paper reviews the status of the use of grafting in two solanaceous crops of global importance, tomato and eggplant, for the control of biotic and abiotic stresses. Flooding and soil-borne diseases cause severe crop losses of tomato during the hot and wet summer months in the lowland tropics. Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (AVR...

The experiments described here address the constraints of hard-seededness of fresh and stored seed of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) and water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica Forssk.). Freshly harvested fruits of two water spinach and two okra accessions were dried for two weeks in a screenhouse prior to manual seed extraction and cleaning. Cl...

Indigenous (traditional) vegetables are best defined generically as species locally important for economic, nutritional, health, system sustainability and social significance but not yet attaining global recognition to the same extent as major commodities like tomato or cabbage. Nevertheless, given the hundreds of such species consumed worldwide, t...

Traditional African leafy vegetables are important components of daily diets for the majority of the population in sub-Saharan Africa. Some crops, like amaranth, contribute considerably to the daily intake of iron and Vitamin A of people living in rural households in Africa. African leafy vegetables can be grown under harsh climatic conditions with...

This study was conducted to evaluate a sub-set of the AVRDC moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) germplasm collection for important horticultural traits under the growing conditions of the Philippines and Taiwan. The 18 AVRDC Moringa accessions originated from India, Laos, Philippines, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand and USA. Horticultural traits evaluated w...

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center and the Department of Agriculture-Region V of the Philippines through its High Value Crops Development Program joined forces to provide initial funding for the implementation of a project on "Community-based Conservation and Multiplication of Selected Indigenous Vegetables" in Santa Teresita, Baao, Camarines Sur f...

With about 84,300 accessions, the section Lycopersicon in the genus Solanum is well-represented in ex situ collections around the globe. The single largest collection (approximately 9.7% of total global resources) is held by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, followed by genebanks in the US, the Philippines, Germany, the Russian Federati...

This paper describes the importance of indigenous vegetables in traditional food systems with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. Many indigenous vegetables are nutrient dense, may require only low external inputs and currently cope well with abiotic and biotic stresses if grown on a small-scale and in mixed cropping systems. To ensure the food a...

Ethiopian mustard is a leafy vegetable crop in the family Brassicaceae with a sharp garlic-like odour when cut and strong aroma when cooked. Besides its use as a leafy vegetable, it is also an important oil crop, especially in Ethiopia where it is believed to have originated. There is an increasing interest in the crop as an industrial oil crop in...

Amaranthus, commonly known as amaranth, is a cosmopolitan genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants containing approximately 60 species, most of which are used as leafy vegetables, cereals or ornamental plants. The leaves are a good source of vitamin A, C, K and folates. The seeds contain a gluten-free protein that is unusually complete for p...

Ethiopian mustard is a leafy vegetable crop in the family Brassicaceae with a sharp garlic-like odour when cut and strong aroma when cooked. Besides its use as a leafy vegetable, it is also an important oil crop, especially in Ethiopia where it is believed to have originated. There is an increasing interest in the crop as an industrial oil crop in...

Moringa (Moringa oleifera) is a perennial softwood vegetable tree and widely grown in the tropics of Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. Most parts of the tree are edible. The leaves and flowers are eaten as salad, as cooked vegetables, added to soups and sauces, or used to make tea. The young, tender pods—known as “drumsticks”—are highly...

This chapter examines the effect of increasing temperature on plant growth and cropping systems, the implications for food production of various crops from a global perspective, the challenges for human nutrition, and the opportunities to modify and adapt cropping systems to climate change. Projections for the near term (20-30 years) predict tha...

Legume breeding at AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center currently focuses on two crops: mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilzcek var. radiata) and vegetable soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill). High yielding, short duration mungbean varieties conventionally bred by AVRDC in conjunction with 29 national partners across Asia revolutionized the industry over...

Recent studies have shown that modern breeding for high yield, visual appearance and long shelf life led to an unintentional decline in taste and the content of essential nutrients in vegetables. AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center is studying whether traditional vegetables are more nutritious than modern varieties and whether early growth stages of...

Crop genetic diversity, created through natural and human selection over millennia and complemented by the diversity present in wild relatives of crop plants, provides the raw material that can be employed by scientists to improve crop productivity and diversify production systems. But genetic variation, once considered unlimited, is fast eroding a...

Legume crops and indigenous vegetables are suitable as cash crops and as a source of readily available daily sustenance in home or kitchen gardens, and therefore play a major role in AVRDC — The World Vegetable Center's mission to alleviate poverty and malnu-trition in the developing world by increasing the production and consumption of nutritious...

Peppers (Capsicum spp.) with pungent (chili, hot pepper) and non-pungent (sweet pepper) fruits are important spice and vegetable crops worldwide. There are five domesticated species of the genus Capsicum, C. annuum being the most widely cultivated. Over the past 25 years, the pepper breeding program at AVRDC– The World Vegetable Center has focused...

Peppers (Capsicum spp.) are an important cash crop for smallholder farmers in developing countries. Hot pepper (chili) dominates world spice trade, and sweet pepper has become a popular vegetable and cash crop in the tropics for smallholders. Among the five cultivated species of the genus Capsicum, C. annuum (both hot and sweet pepper) is the most...

There remains much that is not known about wild relatives of major crops. Hence the need for further collecting and study of these wild genetic resources is warranted. In recent years international and legal aspects of collecting and using germplasm have changed and need to be considered carefully in the preparatory phase of collecting. In addition...

Based on previous project activities implemented by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center in Indonesia, promising lines of four indigenous vegetables, namely vegetable soybean, amaranth, roselle, and Malabar spinach, were chosen for distribution to resource-poor farmers to improve their income and combat malnutrition. All crop seeds cultivated and com...

Climate change and population growth in many developing countries impede progress toward achieving food and nutritional security. Production of an expanded range of food crops can reduce risk and enhance food security. Diversified diets, based on a range of crop species, are essential for nutritional security. Vegetables are an excellent source of...

Information about crop-specific best practices for ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources has been difficult to find until recently. The CGIAR, together with national and regional partners, started to fill that gap by publishing best practices on the crop genebank knowledge base (CGKB -http://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/), a website specif...

Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek.) is a traditional legume food crop which is consumed in several different ways in Vietnam. One of the most serious threats to mungbean cultivation, particularly in the arid central and southern parts of Vietnam, is mungbean yellow mosaic disease (MYMD). To identify sources of resistance against mungbean yellow...

This study was undertaken to examine the population structure of the Solanum pimpinellifolium collection maintained by AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center and to construct a core set of this collection. Out of the entire collection of 322 accessions, a diverse sub-set of 190 accessions was chosen representing 14 countries of origin. These accessions...

The attainment of the Millennium Development Goals is at severe risk owing to rising malnutrition and high child stunting and mortality rates, greater poverty, a large increase in the incidence of non-communicable diseases and lack of progress in women's empowerment. Here we review the role of vegetable home, school, community and disaster recovery...