Vision of Adapted Crops and Soils Program (VACS)

The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) is a program focused on strengthening the resilience of food systems. Its goal is to improve agricultural productivity and nutrition through the development of crop varieties that are diverse and climate resilient, and by building healthy soils. In addition, it seeks to mitigate systemic vulnerability caused by over-reliance on staple crops and soil degradation, which limits agricultural productivity due to rapid nutrient loss. The program will accelerate genetic improvement efforts for traditional and nutritious food crops, contributing to diversified diets and the reduction of nutritional problems. Additionally, VACS will increase access to soil management knowledge and practices that enable informed agricultural decisions to be made, with the goal of reversing soil degradation. The strategy involves an integrated approach that unites crop improvement and soil health, with the aim of creating more productive crops, improving nutrition, reducing soil degradation, increasing climate resilience, decreasing dependence on costly inputs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This program is part of the US government's Feed the Future initiative.