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The vision for adapted crops and soils: how to prioritize investments to achieve sustainable nutrition for all

Nature Plants volume 10, pages 1840–1846 (2024)Cite this article

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The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) is a global movement, launched in 2023, to improve human nutrition in the face of a changing climate and degraded lands. VACS emphasizes an integrated approach to investments in crops and soils, concentrating on the potential of traditional and indigenous ‘opportunity crops’. VACS also addresses priorities, including climate change and drought, biodiversity, soil fertility, gender equality and women’s empowerment, water, sanitation and health.

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Fig. 1: Maize field in southern Mexico, illustrating the opportunities for integrating the genetic diversity of crops and the management of soil health into land-use planning, to sustain the production of more nutritious foods for future generations in landscapes.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the early thought leadership, insights, and contributions of the African Union and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, which shaped and championed the first VACS research agenda; the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which has led the way in demonstrating the importance of agricultural innovation to global food security; the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which has provided a pathway to expand investments in support of VACS objectives; the Rockefeller Foundation, for its early support; the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMI)P and Havos.ai for their leadership in shaping the first VACS research agenda on crops; and US Secretary of State A. J. Blinken, for his commitment to strengthening global food security through VACS. This research was supported by appropriated funds to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)–Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Rangeland Management Research Unit at the Jornada Experimental Range.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Las Cruces, NM, USA

    Jeffrey E. Herrick

  2. Office of Global Food Security, US State Department, Washington DC, USA

    Jeffrey E. Herrick, Cary Fowler & Anna M. Nelson

  3. Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Montpellier, France

    Lindiwe Majele Sibanda

  4. University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Lindiwe Majele Sibanda

  5. Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Rattan Lal

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  1. Jeffrey E. Herrick
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  2. Cary Fowler
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  3. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda
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Correspondence to Jeffrey E. Herrick.

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Herrick, J.E., Fowler, C., Sibanda, L.M. et al. The vision for adapted crops and soils: how to prioritize investments to achieve sustainable nutrition for all. Nat. Plants 10, 1840–1846 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01867-w

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