The Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA), the largest regional seed association in the world, and Kasetsart University jointly organized the second conference of “Asian Solanaceous Round Table (ASRT) 2017” with the theme of ‘Challenges and Future Trends in Solanaceous Crops R&D in Asia” from February 23-25, 2017 at the Ruangkaw Room, Vajiranusorn Building, the Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.

       The foremost goal of this conference was to build up partnerships between public and private sectors in utilizing the full potentials and finding solutions for the problems of one of the most economically important plant families namely “Solanaceae.”  There were over 200 breeders, scientists, governmental officials, and industrial professionals from different countries attending this conference, which comprised two days of discussion and one day for the field trip to the Tropical Vegetable Research Center (TVRC), Kasetsart University, Kampaengsaen Campus. The ASRT 2017 conference signified a pro-active response to regional and global food security challenges as every country in the world has been or will be affected by less availability or reduced quality of food or the new disease and insect epidemics due to the impact of climate change.