PIC more veg: Driving vegetable food environments to promote healthy diets in Pacific Island Countries

Describing key food environment constraints and opportunities for healthy and vegetable-rich diets across the urban-rural nexus in Fiji, and where this points in terms of food system policies and interventions.

Project code
HORT/2021/141
Program
Horticulture
Project start date
20 Mar 2023
Project end date
19 Sep 2025

Managing heavy metals and soil contaminants in vegetable production to ensure food safety and environmental health in the Philippines

Characterising short- and long-term soil constraints to vegetable production on upland acidic soils in the Philippines. Developing strategies to address these constraints.

Project code
SLAM/2020/117
Program
Soil and Land Management
Project start date
01 Feb 2023
Project end date
31 Jan 2027

Adopting a gender-inclusive participatory approach to reducing horticultural food loss in the Pacific

Gender inequality and a lack of gender awareness within value chains in the Pacific have been observed. For instance, in Solomon Islands, women vendors often stay overnight at established markets in unsafe and unhygienic conditions. In Fiji, despite women contributing significantly to agriculture and fishing, men often take control of the decision making. This project aims to investigate and remediate food loss in Pacific Island value chains using a gender sensitive participatory approach to widen fruit and vegetable choices for overall improvement of Pacific diets and nutrition.

Project code
CS/2020/191
Program
Horticulture
Project start date
08 Aug 2022
Project end date
31 Dec 2026

Evaluation of livelihood zones, rural household trajectories, research and development partners and initiatives in Timor-Leste

Improving smallholder farm and livelihood productivity focusing on innovation in soils management and improvement, and investigating the resource base, livelihood, and agronomic strategies of communities in 3 distinct livelihood zones in Timor-Leste.

Project code
SLAM/2021/108
Program
Soil and Land Management
Project start date
04 Apr 2022
Project end date
30 Jun 2024

Piloting digital monitoring of VietGAP compliance and quality in Vietnam vegetable value chains

Developing and piloting low-cost digital tools to help small and medium holder vegetable farmers and other value chain participants to improve VietGAP compliance and the quality of safe vegetables in northwest Vietnam.

Project code
AGB/2021/153
Program
Agribusiness
Project start date
31 Jan 2022
Project end date
31 Mar 2023

Improving income and nutrition in eastern and southern Africa by enhancing vegetable-based farming and food systems in peri-urban corridors - Final report

This project aimed to improve nutrition, employment and income opportunities for vegetable growers and their families in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania's peri-urban areas, the outskirts of cities. Malnutrition, poor diet diversity and youth migration to cities are widespread problems in eastern and southern Africa. Residents undertake agriculture on the fringes of cities (peri-urban areas), often using resources (land, water, energy, labour) that could serve other purposes to satisfy the urban population's needs.

Improved postharvest management of fruit and vegetables in the southern Philippines and Australia - final report

This project is reducing postharvest product and quality losses, and developing physical facilities and research skills for postharvest advancement in the Southern Philippines.  Vegetable consumption in the Southern Philippines is very low, averaging less than 30kg annually and resulting in increased rates of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.  While this low consumption is partly due to cultural preferences for meat and rice, price and availability are also significant barriers. 

Improved market engagement for counter-seasonal vegetable producers in north-western Vietnam - final report

This project aimed to effectively and sustainably link vegetable suppliers in northern Vietnam with modern retailers. Vietnamese love vegetables, but Hanoi's scorching summer temperatures mean local farmers cannot grow popular crops such as tomatoes, cabbage and beans. Instead, such produce is imported from China or brought in from the south. The solution could be found in highland Moc Chau region, which is just four hours by road from Hanoi, sufficiently cool to grow temperate vegetables there in summer, and has 40,000 hectares of good farming land.

Heat stress alleviation in summer vegetables - enhancing the use of genetic diversity in central Punjab, Pakistan - final report

The Pakistani province of Punjab has predominantly a semi-arid climate where average temperatures rise above 40C during the summer. Vegetable production can be severely limited by periods of very high temperature. Although high temperature stress is less common in Australia, this is projected to change as climate becomes more variable (CSIRO Report, 2006).