During the first day of the Crops that Nourish Convening, food security, agriculture, and environmental experts gathered to set an agenda for crops that support the health of both people and the planet. The event was organized by CIMMYT, the Office of the Special Envoy for Global Food Security, and Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health.
The practices of the last several decades has led to significant reductions in key nutrients in crops, and today “we’re at risk of pushing between 100-200 million [more] people into new micronutrient deficiencies,” Sam Myers, Founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, says.
Poor soil health is a key concern, compromising agricultural yield and nutrient density. “Under our feet, all the time, soils are degrading,” says Sieglinde Snapp, Director, Sustainable Agrifood Systems Program at CIMMYT. Snapp calls for diversifying our food systems, stating that “diversity is the foundation of nature’s benefits. Diversity improves diets and livelihoods.”
The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS), an initiative led by the Special Envoy for Global Food Security with support from the African Union, represents one solution to bring greater diversity to the world’s food and agriculture systems.
VACS focuses on “opportunity crops,” including cowpea, pigeon pea, mung bean, and lablab, which are nutrient-dense, climate resilient, and adapted to the local environment. Many of them “have poorly developed value chains even though they are highly nutritious and they can help our soils,” says Julia Sibiya, President, African Breeding Association and an Associate Professor of Plant Breeding at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The African continent, where VACS is initially focusing its efforts, has a lot of potential. But “you don’t eat potential,” Eric Danquah, a Professor of Plant Genetics at the University of Ghana and Founder and Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, says.
That’s why plant breeders, researchers, producers, and other stakeholders are working to bring more attention and investment to these crops. And farmers, the speakers argue, have to play a central role in developing and co-creating solutions.
“We need to be thinking differently, we need to be prioritizing practices that are good for the farmer,” states Jeffrey Herrick, a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Special Envoy for Global Food Security, U.S. Department of State and a Soil Scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.
Farmers not only need to be present in the development of new technologies and practices; they also have to be trusted to implement solutions that work best for them. “Let farmers choose among the options for their specific context,” advises Eva Weltzien, a freelance consultant with Seed and Diversity. That requires partners to “take them seriously from the [outset].”
This trust must also extend to leadership at the individual country level so that they can implement the policies and programs needed to support communities on the ground, argues Günter Hemrich, Senior Adviser, Office of the Chief Economist at the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization. “Agrifood systems differ country to country,” he says, “so let’s give countries a chance to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Put countries in the driver’s seat.”
Watch the full event below.
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Photo courtesy of Sarbjit Bahga, Wikimedia Commons
