"If you want to grow out of poverty, don't plant rice, grow vegetables"
The Belfast-educated global expert in crop agronomy made a compelling case for a greater role of horticulture in the fight against micronutrient deficiencies in the world's poorest nations.
He told delegates from 23 countries at the International Symposia for Tropical and Temperate Horticulture: "It is no longer good enough to aim to feed the world. We must nourish it."
The outgoing director-general of the World Vegetable Centre said the pendulum of the allocation of finite resources for agricultural research and development may finally be shifting toward fruit and vegetables.
"If you have just a small landholding — as most people do in the developing world — then you can make good money out of horticulture but if you grow rice, or you grow wheat, you're likely to remain poor forever," Dr Keatinge said.
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