WorldVeg, committed to the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soil (VACS) initiative

The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) launched on 30 January 2023, marks a pivotal moment in the journey towards climate resilient food systems in Africa. Spearheaded by Cary Fowler at the Office of the Special Envoy for Global Food Security in the US Department of State, in partnership with the African Union and FAO, VACS aims to empower African governments, farmers, agricultural researchers and civil society organizations to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change.

With a track record that spans decades, the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) has shown that it is steadfast in its commitment to pioneering solutions that tackle the multifaceted issues confronting food systems worldwide. Nowhere is this dedication more evident than in Africa, where WorldVeg actively participates in forging a better future for smallholder farmers through transformative initiatives, including through its support to VACS. In collaboration with its many partners, WorldVeg has been instrumental in shaping the trajectory of VACS from its earliest stages.

David Sodjinou from Benin is a ‘citizen scientist’ testing ‘opportunity crops’ in vegetable variety trials. “I have already identified several amaranth varieties with high potential and have saved their seed to grow again. We can sell the crop at local markets and harvest for our own food.” Photo: WorldVeg.

What is VACS?

VACS seeks to create a solid foundation for crop productivity by mobilizing investments in the fundamentals above and below ground: above ground by developing stronger crop varieties and below ground by cultivating healthier soils for those crops to thrive in.

● Crops: Overreliance on a few staple crops leads to systemic vulnerability, especially as extreme weather events increasingly lead to crop failures and reduced yields. Traditional food crops often lack the necessary research investments required to produce them in a competitive commercial market. Many of these crops are highly nutritious and adaptable to local conditions and erratic weather patterns. Under VACS, we will accelerate plant breeding efforts for a targeted set of nutritious, traditional food crops and build resilience by delivering improved crops. The production of traditional crops can lead to diversified diets, helping reduce micronutrient deficiencies, child stunting, and wasting.

● Soils: Degraded soils continue to deteriorate, with some regions experiencing nutrient depletion rates up to 100 times faster than replenishment rates, leading to low crop productivity. Under VACS, we will work to reverse this trend by increasing access to knowledge and information at the farm and field level, enabling informed decisions about what to grow, where to grow it, and which soil management practices to apply.

From: https://www.state.gov/the-vision-for-adapted-crops-and-soils/

From its inception, WorldVeg has been an integral part of VACS, actively contributing to the identification of nutritious crops in African subregions. In August 2023, 40 experts met at FAO headquarters in Rome for the VACS Phase 1 Technical Workshop. Amongst them were WorldVeg Head of Genetic Resources, Maarten van Zonneveld, WorldVeg specialist breeder of traditional vegetables Fekadu Dinssa based in Tanzania, and Enoch Achigan Dako, project partner in the Taiwan Africa Vegetable Initiative (TAVI) from the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin. They contributed to narrowing down a list of 150 traditional and indigenous crops in Africa to 60 priority crops that have high nutritional value and are well adapted to the selected target agroecologies.

Among these 60 priority crops, a dozen are vegetables on which WorldVeg actively works. These include nutrient-dense vegetables such as okra, amaranth, African eggplant, pumpkin, Ethiopian mustard, jute mallow, mung bean, and spider plant, which boast high levels minerals and vitamins. These ‘opportunity crops’ are ideal to diversify production with highly nutrient crops that can adapt to challenging environments.

At the forefront of the efforts of WorldVeg is its dedication to conserving vegetable biodiversity and developing improved varieties. With the largest publicly accessible collection of vegetable germplasm in the world, and breeding programs for global and traditional vegetable and legume crops, WorldVeg is one of the global leaders in genetic resource conservation and breeding.

Innovative farmers like Mrs Dlamini in Eswatini are now intercropping their maize crop with African nightshade, amaranth, and other traditional vegetables. Photo: WorldVeg.

Africa’s Vegetable Genebank, recently inaugurated at the WorldVeg regional center in Tanzania, holds the largest collection of traditional African vegetable seed, alongside a new facility in Eswatini that now serves southern Africa. Regarding examples of the impact of Worldveg breeding programs, 98% of all African eggplant grown in East Africa contains WorldVeg germplasm, new amaranth varieties have doubled yields in Tanzania, and WorldVeg leads the International Mungbean Improvement Network funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) that is introducing improved varieties to the continent. And during the past decade alone, more than 450,000 seed kits containing many of the identified VACS ‘opportunity crops’ have been distributed across the continent from the WorldVeg genebank in Tanzania.

The WorldVeg commitment to sustainability also extends beyond seed development, by encompassing the improvement of soil health through the testing and adoption of appropriate agroecological practices. By promoting integrated pest management and soil improvement practices for vegetable production, and introducing new postharvest technologies, WorldVeg uses a holistic approach that adds to its contribution to more resilient and sustainable food systems in Africa.

With a third of its staff based in Africa, across nine countries, WorldVeg is deeply committed to working in close collaboration with partners to advance the goals of VACS. From high level meetings at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York to active participation in other VACS gatherings, WorldVeg scientists are at the forefront of shaping a more resilient future for agriculture. As co-authors of recent VACS publications and as lead authors of publications that helped to select the priority 60 crops (see links below), WorldVeg is proud to contribute its expertise to this vital initiative. Together, we can co-create resilient food systems that nourish and sustain all Africans, from producers to consumers, ensuring a brighter and more prosperous future for generations to come.