Vegetable Breeding Research Center (VBRC) has been designated as one of the Agriculture Research Centers (ARC) of the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in 2010, with the purpose to educate future vegetable breeding experts, to develop high quality vegetable cultivars, and to develop cutting-edge breeding technologies to support the conventional breeding.

VBRC will pursue two core programs: the first program for supporting education for graduates and basic research for breeding, and the second one for developing cultivars. In the first program, tools to increase the efficiency of breeding process will be generated through researches on genomic analysis of major vegetable crops and on development of efficient disease screening methods. In addition, graduates will be trained under new curriculum and through domestic and international internship programs. Future current breeders will be also trained in various workshops. In the second core program, experienced cultivars of pepper, watermelon, onion, and chinese cabbage will be developed by the cooperative researches between university and seed company or individual breeders. Our primary characteristics is disease resistance, functionality, high-quality and male sterility. The breeding process includes collection of germplasm, genetic analysis, development of efficient breeding methods and introduction of characteristics by crossing.

The participating universities can have an education and training system for future breeders. The students will be provided with high-quality education in plant. Then breeding; as a result, they will be at advantageous position to get a job and the seed companies can hire qualified graduates. Finally, Korea will secure national competitiveness for vegetable seed industry.
Eventually, this center will be developed into a Vegetable Breeding Academy to assure that highly qualified and dedicated professionals replace the current breeders nearing retirement.