Horticulture is an important component of agricultural economy for the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). It contributes to food and nutrition security, income diversification for smallholder farmers, job opportunities along the value chain, and an increase in foreign exchange. Nevertheless, the horticulture sector in South Asia faces various challenges: i) inadequate production and supply of nutrient-dense fruit and vegetables to meet daily micronutrient requirement of the people, especially for children of age under five years and women of reproductive age; ii) low productivity of horticultural products due to the use of low-yielding varieties, prevalence of pests and diseases, limited knowledge and skills in crop management, and unavailability of basic input materials; iii) climate change that brings out emerging invasive pests and infectious plant diseases, and abiotic stresses imposed on horticultural crops, thus aggravate already low productivity; iv) food safety concerns of marketed fruit and vegetables arising from overuse of pesticides, improper growing environment, and mishandling of horticultural products; v) post-harvest losses and waste of inherently perishable horticultural products due to factors such as improper handling, and inadequate facilities for storage, transport, and processing; and vi) inadequate marketing linkage and value chain development. To address these challenges for the next decade, we propose a series of research and development (R&D) programs that could be jointly implemented within the SAARC community in association with international and regional agricultural research organizations. The SAARC Agricultural Centre (SAC) is in best placed to facilitate implementation of the proposed research and development programs through the establishment of public and private sector partnerships, and leverage funding.