Nutrient security, women's empowerment, seed quality, and postharvest losses are a few of the things that the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC) tackles in their work as an international research organization. This five-minute lightning talk was given by Fenton Beed, the Regional Director for East and Southeast Asia at AVRDC, and discusses many of the projects AVRDC is implementing in Southeast Asia.

Beed discusses the importance of vegetable crops in nutrition security, women's empower, and creating income. He emphasizes giving farmers and gardeners the power to diagnose the problems so that AVRDC can help determine appropriate control interventions, with the goal of improving food safety by decreasing pesticide use. Beed also discusses reducing postharvest losses through technology interventions at the packhouse level. Beed concludes by discussing the training programs and network offered by AVRDC.

This presentation was given at the 2016 Horticulture Innovation Lab annual meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia.