Fruits and youth...

Abstract

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the very interesting conference on tropical and subtropical fruits in Bogor, Indonesia. The venue was excellent and it was a very good occasion for the participants to share much information, experience and knowledge in this so attractive and promising, but how fragile, world of fruits, which deserves to draw much more attention from the scientific community and the decision-makers. Moreover, the field trip was a real success with the visit to the Mekarsari fruit garden, which is regarded as the largest tropical fruit garden in the world. Its cultural and educational value deserves to be emphasised. Indeed, an exemplary effort is made there towards school-aged children in order to educate and to sensitise them to the preservation of fruit species and their eco-friendly cultivation and use. Similar efforts are made for the young generation of farmers, by the “Youth Farmer Club”, in order to encourage them to become the best actors who will be aware of the high nutritional, economic and social value of fruits, as well as their high susceptibility to genetic erosion, global warming, pests and diseases, etc.