Vegetables, Roots and Tubers

The production of vegetables, roots and tubers has been a major activity devised by human cultures to sustain their livelihood for centuries. They play a vital role in human health, human nutrition and food security. However, despite the upsurge in the global demand of vegetables, small- to large-scale production is challenging due to multiple and interactive factors such as extreme climatic events, limited water resources, high salinity, unbalanced fertility, marginal soils, pests and diseases, and erosion of region-specific adaptable germplasm. In the last two decades significant improvements have been achieved through breeding for improving resource use efficiency, abiotic and biotic stress tolerance and enhanced product quality of fresh and processed vegetables.

The Division Vegetables, Roots and Tubers (DVEG) provides the platform to share new knowledge and present innovative ideas for potential solutions to address those challenges through scientific exchanges and sharing of integrated technologies applicable to improve the production steps of major vegetable food sources.

The 13 Working Groups in the Division represent numerous vegetable species of economic importance worldwide. Each Working Group is involved in production steps or chains to bring products “from farm to fork” under intensive or extensive growing systems. Research topics include cultivar selection, seeding, transplanting, irrigation, fertilization, mechanization, harvesting, produce quality, storage, processing, marketing and distribution. Academic, government, industry, and NGO experts affiliated with specific Working Groups, or attending related symposia, are involved in basic and applied research addressing plant growth and developmental processes to maximize yield, quality (nutrition, taste, and appearance) and resource-use efficiency under different climatic conditions and environments.

Each symposium organized by a primary Working Group is generally supported by other Working Groups within or outside the DVEG Division, benefiting from the synergy of multiple disciplines such as seed biology, physiology, breeding, entomology, plant pathology, plant nutrition, mechanization, postharvest physiology and processing of vegetable crops. A highlight from our symposia has been the active participation from industry, commodity groups, growers, outreach specialists, and graduate students.

We invite you to explore future symposia and the large collection and series of online Acta Horticulturae peer reviewed proceedings that summarize impactful research, technological advances and scientific discoveries.