The Africa Vegetable Breeding Consortium (AVBC) has held its largest-ever annual workshop in Benin, drawing a record number of participants and countries. The new breeding lines and hybrids showcased at the event could help expand climate-resilient, market-focused vegetable production across Africa and beyond.
Hosted by the WorldVeg West Africa Regional Office, the event brought together 40 participants from 19 seed companies, representing 18 countries from as far afield as DR Congo, France, Italy, South Africa, and Tanzania, with Egypt joining for the first time. This was the widest geographical participation since the consortium was established in 2018, reflecting its growing reach in Africa and beyond.
Participants evaluated field demonstrations of 41 vegetable breeding lines across eight crops: tomato, chili and habanero pepper, okra, pumpkin, amaranth, mungbean and African eggplant (see below for full details).
These crops are vital to diets and livelihoods across Africa, with significant potential for scaling up and commercial expansion. But farmers often lack access to quality seeds of resilient varieties that produce good yields with good quality fruits, withstand harsh growing conditions and meet the needs of local markets.
AVBC aims to close this gap by getting better-performing, locally adapted varieties and hybrids into the hands of African seed companies and, ultimately, to the farmers. It provides AVBC members with exclusive, early-bird access to WorldVeg-improved breeding lines and hybrids, which they can use to enhance their own breeding programs and develop new varieties and hybrids for commercial release.
AVBC is a joint initiative of WorldVeg and the African Seed Trade Association (AfSTA), working to build Africa’s capacity to develop, produce and market improved vegetables suited to African growing conditions and markets.
The annual AVBC workshops enable members to see the options growing in the field and provide opportunities for them to interact with WorldVeg breeders and other seed companies, exchange ideas and strategies, and develop activities together. Beyond the workshops, WorldVeg’s research network provides another advantage for AVBC members. With scientists and research sites across multiple African countries, breeding material and hybrids can be tested and evaluated under different agroecological conditions. The Center’s English- and French-speaking teams also help connect companies across linguistic divides that can otherwise limit collaboration between seed businesses in different parts of the continent.
Hybrid firsts
In addition to the breeding lines, the Benin event included AVBC demonstration plots of hybrid plants for the first time: 30 experimental hybrids, 16 tomato and 14 pepper types (11 chili and three habanero) developed by WorldVeg.
While breeding lines can be released as open-pollinated varieties (OPVs), whose seed farmers can save and plant again, hybrids are produced by crossing two carefully selected parent lines. The first generation of hybrids can combine useful characteristics from both parents and perform particularly well – an effect known as hybrid vigour, or heterosis. This can mean higher yields, more uniform crops and greater resilience. But those advantages are not reliably maintained if farmers save seed from the hybrid crop and plant it again, so they need to buy new hybrid seed to get the same benefits. This creates a stronger commercial opportunity for seed companies, making hybrids an important expansion of the AVBC portfolio.
“This is the biggest and most diverse AVBC workshop we have ever held, and that tells us there is a real appetite among seed companies for better vegetable genetics,” said Mwasilwa Ambali, lead technology scaling specialist at WorldVeg.
“We want African seed companies to have access to these technologies and take these materials, test them under their own conditions, build their own breeding capacity and ultimately put better varieties into farmers’ hands. The more companies that can develop and commercialize competitive products themselves, the stronger and more diverse Africa’s vegetable seed sector becomes.”
“What we are seeing this year is a much broader range of options for African seed companies, from promising breeding lines to hybrids,” said Dr. Yacouba Diallo, Secretary General of AfSTA. “AVBC members get exclusive early access to that material, giving them a valuable head start in identifying the varieties and products that could work best for their farmers and markets.”
Gaining ground on bacterial wilt
Participants also visited demonstration plots from an exclusive AVBC project showcasing tomato and pepper lines that can withstand bacterial wilt, one of the most difficult diseases affecting these crops in Africa. Through the fee-based, four-year Special Project, WorldVeg is working with six African seed companies to test 12 tomato and 15 chili pepper lines in bacterial wilt hotspots across the continent.
The tomato lines combine several resistance genes in different ways – an approach known as gene pyramiding – while samples of the bacteria from each trial will be sent to WorldVeg for identification. By determining which combinations of resistance genes work best against the bacteria present in each location, the project aims to map which resistance is most effective where – giving participating seed companies a head start in developing locally adapted, bacterial-wilt-resistant varieties.
Recognizing achievements
This year, AVBC also recognized the outstanding contribution of its members in two key areas. The first award recognized seed companies COPROSEM from Mali and BOUTAPA from Burkina Faso for their strong engagement, having released more than 10 varieties, including mungbean, pepper and tomato, demonstrating the contribution of AVBC to improving the vegetable genetics available in African markets.
The second award recognized consistency in data sharing on the use and seed sales of WorldVeg breeding lines or derived varieties, with COPROSEM and BOUTAPA joined by East-West Seed and NAFASO Seeds. This data is essential for measuring AVBC’s impact, demonstrating that the model is delivering results, and making the case for continued investment and support. The awards aim to encourage more members to bring AVBC varieties to market and share data consistently, helping the consortium better capture and demonstrate its impact.
With record participation, the introduction of hybrids and increasingly targeted breeding projects, the Benin workshop reflected how AVBC is evolving and gaining momentum as the African vegetable seed sector grows. The aim remains simple: give more seed companies access to the genetics and breeding tools they need to develop competitive varieties in and for Africa – and accelerate the process of getting quality seed to farmers.
The AVBC Annual Workshop 2026 was held from 8-10 September. The next AVBC annual workshop will be hosted by WorldVeg in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2027. AVBC is a joint initiative of WorldVeg and the African Seed Trade Association (AfSTA), working to build Africa’s capacity to develop, produce and market improved vegetables suited to African growing conditions and markets. The AVBC approach is inspired by the APSA-WorldVeg Vegetable Breeding Consortium, which has seen the release of 200 new, climate-smart vegetable varieties in Asia, and which is on track to reach one million smallholder farmers by 2030.
AVBC Annual Workshop 2026 – highlights by crop
Pepper
- AVBC-exclusive chilli lines represented important market types for sub-Saharan Africa, including dual-purpose types for fresh and dry markets, combining fruit shape, size, color, and high capsaicinoid content demanded by different regional markets; strong agronomic performance, including high fruit set and yield under hot conditions, good plant vigor, and resistance to important diseases, particularly cucumber mosaic virus and bacterial wilt.
- Performance of habanero hybrids at AVBC was exceptional.
- The WorldVeg pepper breeding team is particularly excited about the AVBC-exclusive open-pollinated varieties of habaneros we made available this year, especially AVPP25027, our first high-performing, highly pungent yellow habanero.
Tomato
- The 10 new AVBC-exclusive tomato lines showed strong field performance in Benin, combining market-preferred fruit types with key disease resistance traits.
- 16 experimental hybrids, providing AVBC partners with advanced, market-oriented materials for evaluation and potential commercialization.
- The AVBC special project on bacterial wilt demonstrated 12 tomato lines with different resistance-gene combinations across African hotspots, aiming to identify the best resistance combinations for locally adapted varieties. Preliminary results from both controlled inoculation and the Benin field trial show clear variation in resistance, highlighting the importance of pyramiding resistance genes against diverse bacterial strains. Together with the resistant genetic materials shared through the project, these findings will help AVBC seed companies optimize their breeding strategies and accelerate the development of durable, locally adapted bacterial-wilt-resistant varieties.
Okra
- Six exclusive lines across three priority market segments (long, medium, and short pod), each combining excellent fruit quality (mucilage content, spinelessness, green-to-dark green color, and fruit length), short internode, high yield, and resistance to okra leaf curl disease. The lines performed very well.
- The medium-pod lines (AVOK2602, AVOK2605, AVOK2606) and short-pod line (AVOK2604) were developed to fill a gap in seed companies’ variety portfolios targeting West and Central Africa.
- The conversations with seed companies were especially valuable, opening the door to potential collaborations to better understand how these lines respond to virus strains across different hotspots.
Mungbean
- Four large-seeded lines (100 seed weight: 7-7.9 g), shiny green seeded, early maturing (less than 60 days) and high yielding (1.4-1.5 t/ha), based on the feedback from previous workshops.
- The field performance of the new lines in Benin was excellent and participating companies expressed strong interest in testing them.
- Based on the discussions with the private companies, we can expect new mungbean varieties to be released in Benin, Burkina Faso and Somalia in early 2027.
- Mung Delights – a WorldVeg-developed e-Recipe book (in English, French and Swahili) on mungbean was shared with interested companies. [link]
Pumpkin
- Six elite pumpkin lines combining resistance to viruses, powdery mildew and downy mildew with very good-to-excellent fruit quality, aligned with major African market preferences.
- The exclusive lines included two butternut, two Thai warty, one smooth dark-green ribbed and one mottled light-green type.
- Companies expressed strong interest in the check line AVPU1426, which combines resistance to Tomato leaf curl New Delhi virus (ToLCNDV) and Squash leaf curl China virus (SLCCNV) and which showed a very good yield performance under demonstration conditions in Benin.
- Materials showed good to strong field resistance to local Powdery Mildew strain(PM) at 77 days after direct sowing in Benin. No significant virus pressure was observed.
- Companies expressed their interest in multipurpose pumpkins for flesh, seeds and young leaves. AVPU2185 was particularly promising for all three uses, while butternut types received the strongest market interest because of their niche value.
- Strong interest was expressed in testing WorldVeg pumpkin hybrids by companies across several African locations. There was also interest in exploiting hybrid breeding and training about controlled-pollination techniques.
Amaranth
- Five breeding lines were demonstrated, with three targeting the vegetable market and two for the emergency grain or dual-purpose market in Africa, to address issues of micro- and macronutrient deficiencies (iron, zinc, calcium, vitamins and proteins).
- Based on conversations with seed companies, West Africa markets largely favour green and broad-leaf varieties, reflected in lines AVAM2417 and AVAM2304.
- The grain market is relatively new to West Africa; however, many seed companies expressed interest in promoting grain as a healthy, nutritious food
- One of the strongest recommendations from seed companies was to assess the nutrient profiles of all lines for ease of market penetration.
- More than 10 seed companies expressed interest in obtaining the five lines that were demonstrated, including the three narrow-leaf purple lines targeting the vegetable market.
African Eggplant
- This year five African eggplant breeding lines with strong resistance to bacterial wilt, a common product challenge in Africa, were demonstrated.
- Three of the lines (AVAE2505, AVE2504 and AVAE2509) outperformed a commercial check in terms of fruit yield, and these lines were of high interest to most seed companies.
- Seed companies called for more kumba-type African eggplant lines to meet West African market preferences. The five lines demonstrated were gilo types, which are mainly preferred in East Africa and some West African markets.
- Most seed companies also expressed interest in developing African eggplant hybrids.
