In 1978, the UN Conference on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) accepted it as an important development tool for achieving national and collective self-reliance and adopted the Buenos Aires Plan of Action to support implementation of these objectives. In 1979, FAO launched a new initiative to put emphasis on TCDC as a means towards achieving sustainable development.

THE GENESIS OF VEGINET The 661 participants from 37 countries of the International Conference on Vegetables (ICV) held on 11-14 November, 2002, at Bangalore, India, discussed over 600 papers and posters presented on its 13 theme areas of scientific, technological and economic importance including Theme Area on TCDC. They strongly felt at the conclusion of the Conference that this phenomenal knowledge and much more of it that is globally available and will be available in the future should be collected, consolidated and easily retrieved and shared for appropriate use by the stakeholders. Therefore, the General Assembly of the Conference ICV-2002 decided to establish the Vegetable Science International Network (VEGINET). During November 9-12, 2009, the VEGINET held its meeting along with the International Conference on Horticulture (ICH-2009) during the session : Technical Cooperation Among Developing Countries (TCDC) in Bangalore. The General Assembly of 650 members from 40 countries met and discussed, (a) VEGINET Constitution, (b) revision of the registration fee, and (c) Executive Council was nominated and approved.

The main objectives of the VEGINET is to:
 

• Strengthen and promote vegetable research and development by facilitating inter-and intra-regional and inter-institutional cooperation through exchange of scientific, technological and related economic information and in identifying priority areas of cooperative research and development, and, development of regional and interregional projects with specific time frame, objectives and outputs.
• Promote partnership between public and private sector for improving vegetable production.
• Facilitate development of human resource through better education and training.
• Promote improved and sustainable production of vegetables for food to provide nutritional security and economic empowerment of the farming community.
• Develop collaborative network for dissemination of information among the member organizations.
• Facilitate building of a sound and sustainable infrastructure of grading, packing, storage, roads, railways and water transport for perishable produce from farm-to-the-consumer and processor for holistic socio-economic development of the farming community.

• The vision is to promote partnerships in education, research, extension and development efforts in vegetable sector involving both the private and public sectors. The VEGINET may assist the private sector to have access to new technologies or generate materials developed in a developing country on mutual agreement basis of the donor and recipient partners. Similarly, the private sector may provide training facilities to research institutions in developing countries and technology transfer, field trials, production or manufacturing process, marketing etc.
• Develop collaborative network for dissemination of information among the member organizations.
• The Bangalore Resolutions of ICV-2002 has highlighted the partnership role of international and regional institutions committed to vegetable sector such as FAO, AVRDC, CABI, CIAT, CIRAD, ISHS etc.,