Vegetable Research Matters for Southeast Asia

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-028-2_62How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Southeast Asia; Malnutrition; Food system; Vegetables; Micronutrients; Diet

Abstract

Malnutrition presents a significant challenge across most Southeast Asian countries. Vegetable-enriched diets can contribute to reducing malnutrition by supplying phytonutrients, minerals, phytonutrients, proteins, vitamins and dietary fiber. However, average vegetable consumption in many Southeast Asian countries is far below the recommended intake. A Push-Pull-Policy framework is used to discuss knowledge gaps and research and action priorities to enhance vegetable production and consumption, leading to healthier diets but also to jobs and income opportunities in particular for women and youth. This will require a thorough understanding of vegetable value chains, food environments, dietary gaps, and consumer behavior, as well as external drivers such as climate change, urbanization, and policy. Making vegetables more available and affordable to consumers in Southeast Asia will entail technological and organizational innovations along the value chain, from seed to retail, and strong public-private sector partnerships to enhance vegetable productivity under changing climate scenarios. Significant investment in infrastructure will be needed to enable value-adding capabilities and to reduce postharvest vegetable losses and food waste. Consumer behavior also needs to be better understood; some consumer segments have a low acceptance of vegetables due to food safety concerns, high preferences for animal-based foods, or a lack of knowledge about nutrition and health. There is a need to diversify food systems with nutritious vegetables, aiming to achieve favorable and lasting dietary, economic, and environmental outcomes at scale. Given the rapid urbanization across the region, this is particularly important in and around cities. Vegetable research clearly matters for the Southeast Asia region. To realize the nutritional and economic potential of vegetables, these crops need to be given much greater attention. In the context of COVID-19 it is imperative to address disruptions in the food value chain and food environment, and an overall reduction in the consumption of nutritious vegetables due to imposed lockdown measures.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - M. C. S. Wopereis
AU  - C. G. Kuo
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/12
TI  - Vegetable Research Matters for Southeast Asia
BT  - Proceedings of the International Symposium Southeast Asia Vegetable 2021 (SEAVEG 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 601
EP  - 613
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-028-2_62
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-028-2_62
ID  - Wopereis2022
ER  -