Vitality, Variety, Value: VEGETABLES

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(Free-Press-Release.com) February 10, 2011 -- It may be a high ranking, but it is not a healthy one: The prevalence of diabetes in India is now among the highest in the world. Conservative calculations place the number of the country’s diabetics at 40 million; at the high end, it’s estimated that 10% or approximately 100 million are afflicted. The strain on families, the economy, and health care systems is incalculable.

But a simple change in diet can make all the difference in controlling the disease: Eat more vegetables.

“Eat them daily, eat as many different kinds and colors as you can,” said Dr. Dyno Keatinge, Director General of AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center. “Increasing vegetable consumption is the most effective, most inexpensive tool a country has to benefit the health of its citizens.” He discussed the issue at the IFPRI 2020 Conference on Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health at the Taj Palace Hotel, New Dehli. The conference runs from 10-12 February 2011.

Vegetables supply the vital nutrients, minerals and vitamins the human body needs to thrive. “Over the last 40 years we’ve focused on overcoming hunger, but our success in increasing the production of staple crops has come at a great cost, both to agricultural diversity and community health,” said Keatinge. “You can’t live on rice or bread alone and be healthy.”

Increasingly, people in the developed and developing world alike have diets high in carbohydrates and fats. In many developing countries, more than 70% of diets now consist of just one staple. While staple crops such as rice or maize are important for food security, they don’t provide much protein, vitamins, or other vital micronutrients. The emphasis on starchy staples leads to higher rates of obesity—a known risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic health problems that strain already-stretched health care systems.

“The key need is for balanced diets,” said Keatinge. “Vegetables are our best source of the vitamins, micronutrients, and fiber the human body requires for health. They add much-needed nutritional diversity to diets.” Yet vegetable consumption in most countries, developed or developing, is well below recommended minimum standards.

The concept of balance and diversity extends to agriculture and economics. “Vegetables are less risk-prone to drought than staple crops, as they typically have a shorter growing time,” said Keatinge. “They can maximize scarce water supplies and soil nutrients.”

Growing vegetables is one of the most potent means available for small-scale farmers to generate income on and off the farm. A labor-intensive activity, vegetable production creates jobs and diversifies local cropping systems. It encourages entrepreneurship in marketing fresh produce and processing the harvest, which helps develop rural infrastructure and strengthen local economies.

Global investment in agricultural research grew rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s to address poverty. After successes in grain production were achieved, research investment dwindled in the 1980s and stagnated from 1990 onwards. “Support for agricultural research must be increased now to meet the growing demand for food without deterioration of the agricultural resource base,” said Keatinge. “Vegetables have an important role to play in transforming and diversifying agriculture to safely provide food, income, and employment for the poor, foster economic growth, and improve resource conservation and environmental protection.”

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center conducts vegetable research and development activities to benefit small-scale farmers and improve nutrition across the globe. The Center’s technologies—including heat- and drought-tolerant tomato and pepper lines, grafting, drip irrigation, and nethouse and other sheltered production methods—help farmers diversify their cropping systems, spread their risk, generate more income, and produce nutritious, health-promoting vegetables for their families and communities. For example:

• In India, the Center’s home garden kits and training courses on vegetable preparation with improved recipes help increase vegetable consumption and ensure more nutrients can be absorbed by the body.

• In Africa’s Sahel the Center’s breeders have developed and distributed seed of a tomato with high beta carotene—the precursor to vitamin A. Vitamin A defciency weakens the immune system; it is the leading cause of preventable blindness in childrenty. The high beta carotene “golden tomatoes” contain three to six more times ß-carotene than standard tomatoes, and one golden tomato can provide a person’s full daily vitamin A requirement.

• In Vietnam the Center’s grafting technology helps farmers overcome flooding and soil-borne diseases and produce steady harvests by grafting tomato scions onto hardy eggplant rootstocks.

• In the Solomon Islands the Center’s low-cost drip irrigation kits reduce labor costs.

Agriculture     DEVELOPMENT     health     research     vegetables