New partnership to enhance farm productivity and nutrition

In July 2024, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and CIMMYT, a CGIAR Research Center, signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a partnership for the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative. The joint Partnership will play a pivotal role leading efforts to coordinate, grow and strengthen the VACS movement across a wide range of public and private stakeholders.

“By joining forces with CGIAR and CIMMYT, we bring together our collective capacities to build a strong momentum and platform to advance the VACS,” said FAO’s Director-General QU Dongyu. “VACS effectively brings together the Four Betters set out in the FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life – leaving no one behind.”

“Our 2030 Strategy focuses on strengthening agrifood systems to increase nutritional value and climate resilience,” said CIMMYT’s Director General, Bram Govaerts. “We are proud to stand united, through VACS, with FAO, whose excellent track record on policy work and networking with national governments will help equip farmers with resilient seed and climate-smart cropping systems that regenerate, rather than degrade, the soils on which their diets and livelihoods depend.”

Launched in 2023 by the U.S. Department of State in partnership with the African Union and FAO, the VACS movement aims to build sustainable and resilient agrifood systems by leveraging opportunity crops and building healthy soils to enhance agricultural resilience to climate change and improve diets. Nutrient-rich and traditional crops like sorghum, millet, cowpea and mung bean are vital for food security and nutrition under climate change but have seen little attention so far. VACS recognises the interdependence of crops and soils. Crops need good soil to be productive, and different crops can only be sustainably grown on some types of land.

Leveraging on the expertise and mandates of both CIMMYT and FAO, the new joint VACS Partnership will support, coordinate and amplify the impact of all stakeholders of the VACS movement, public and private.

(Cimmyt/ile)

More information:

• Read more on the The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS)
• Visit the VACS explorer
• Cimmyt website