Devex Dish: A new vision for crops and soil in Guatemala

Talk about a vote of confidence: A U.S.-backed program to build climate-resilient food systems by promoting indigenous and traditional crops that had been deployed across parts of Africa is now crossing the Atlantic and will soon take root in Guatemala.

The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils initiative, which launched last year, seeks to drive down Africa’s reliance on non-indigenous cereals like rice, maize, and wheat, which are vulnerable to extreme weather. Instead, VACS is intended to spur the use of “opportunity crops” that are native to the region, more resistant to a changing climate, and can help improve people’s nutrition.

Guatemala was a natural next step, given the high levels of food insecurity in the country — nearly half of all children are stunted — and its location within Central America’s Dry Corridor that is particularly vulnerable to drought and erratic rainfall.

To try to counter those issues, VACS in Guatemala will begin by increasing research into the potential for beans and biofortified maize to serve as a starting point for improving production. At the same time, beginning in January 2025, the U.S. Department of State, Guatemala’s Ministry of Agriculture, and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture will begin working to improve soil fertility, productivity, and sustainability.

New seed varieties should also be on the way as part of this new vision for Guatemala’s food future.

Read: A US-led initiative to climate-proof crops heads to Central America

From our archives: US launches climate resilience program for African agriculture 

All is not quiet on the farm

The United States secretary of agriculture has voiced his concerns about the latest version of the still-pending farm bill — adding further doubts about the future of draft legislation that aid groups are already warning could strip food aid from 2.3 million people.

That version of the bill calls for the domestically focused U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, to take a bigger role in deciding where to steer the resources of Food for Peace, a major U.S. food aid program that distributes U.S.-grown commodities to countries in need. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack seemed to think USAID is doing just fine calling the shots.

“We’re obviously a partner with USAID, but those folks are the experts. They know where the real hotspots are and where the need is,” Vilsack said Monday.

Aid organizations have shared the same concerns about that shift in decision-making power proposed in the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee last month. Typically, USDA buys food from American farmers and USAID programs it, leaving USAID to decide where food is most needed and which products should go where.

“I hope that we continue to have a good, strong collaboration between our two departments and that we don’t put ourselves in a position where we’re seen as a competitor,” Vilsack said at the event hosted by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

He also noted how the farm bill — a $1.5 trillion piece of legislation that’s typically been seen as relatively bipartisan — has edged into divisive territory.

“I think there are some innovative and creative ways we can get to use on a farm bill, but when people draw fairly significant lines in the sand and essentially say, it’s our way or the highway, that makes it very, very difficult for the legislative process — which is based on compromise, and based on negotiation — to work,” he added.

Background reading: US House advances farm bill that could strip aid from 2.3 million

A mouthful

There is a desperate need for food aid in Sudan, where one of the consequences of a conflict that has been raging for more than a year is that civilians are starting to starve.

But in an opinion piece for Devex, Kayola and Govaerts argue that it is equally important to begin investing in longer-term food production. Deficiencies in the agrifood sector that existed before the conflict even started are now contributing to the overall food shortages, they write.

It’s a pattern that could begin to play out in other places, as well. Food shortages can even provoke conflict, creating a “doom loop of insecurity,” they write.

By working to mitigate those challenges now, it might help prevent — or at least lessen the impact of — any future hunger crisis.

Opinion: Aid competes with long-term solutions to Sudan’s hunger crisis

A bouquet of reports

Just as gardens are starting to bloom, our inboxes are bursting with reports. We’ve plucked some highlights for you:

• Regular Dish readers will no doubt know that the global agrifood system is responsible for a third of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The World Bank has a recipe for getting the agrifood system to net zero. In high-income countries, it will require curbing the demand for animal-sourced foods and using more renewable energy in food production, while middle-income countries could stop cutting down forests to turn them into croplands and pastures, among other steps. The good news is that investing $260 billion a year in cutting agrifood emissions — which is 18 times more than current investments — could save $4.3 trillion in health, economic, and environmental terms in 2030.

• Meanwhile, the Stop Financing Factory Farming coalition says the World Bank didn’t go far enough in its report and calls for the global lender to halt all funding for the expansion of factory farming if it really intends to reach net zero. With evidence that livestock will consume an estimated 80% of the world’s emissions budget if we are to stay under the Paris climate agreement’s target of 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, the authors argue that industrial livestock is simply incompatible with global climate goals.

• More than 9% of the global population faced hunger in 2022. Meanwhile, 43% of adults are overweight. How can agrifood systems meet both of these challenges, while also contending with the threats posed by climate change? The answers are as complex as the problem, but the International Food Policy Research Institute says in its 2024 Global Food Policy Report that there must be efforts to shift what people want to eat, to make healthy diets more affordable, and to improve the nutritional value of crops. And those are only some initial steps in the truly multisectoral response that is required.

• Global land prices have doubled since the financial crisis that began in 2008, as investors, agrifood companies, and sovereign wealth funds swooped in to grab land, including significant farmland in the global south. But that isn’t the only challenge farmers face: Farmland is also increasingly being bought to offset carbon — a trend known as “green grabbing.” The result of this land squeeze, according to the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, is an increasing risk to the future of food production.

• More than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the small-scale farmers who produce much of the country’s vegetables and fruit, dairy, poultry, and honey have been devastated. They can’t find people to work the farms or veterinary services, and some even need to demine their fields before they can get back to planting. In its evaluation, Mercy Corps offers some solutions to help ease the crisis, including modifying agricultural machinery to make it easier for people with disabilities to operate.

+ Devex Pro members can read about the World Bank’s new program for improving global food and nutrition security, in this wide-ranging interview with Julian Lampietti, the bank’s manager for global agriculture practice.

+ Not yet a Devex Pro member? Access all our exclusive reporting and analyses, data-driven funding insights, members-only events, and the world’s largest global development job board by starting a 15-day free trial today.

Chew on this

Italy is working with the Group of Seven most advanced economies on a proposal to support clean energy and food security in Africa. [Bloomberg]

China’s first food security law has come into effect. It aims to put the country on track to achieving self-sufficiency in staple grains, protect farmland from conversion to other uses, safeguard germplasm resources, and prevent wastage. [Reuters]

For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a feed additive that claims to reduce methane emissions in dairy cattle by 30%, signaling an acceleration in the feed additives market. [Agriculture Dive]

In the search for dietary proteins that are environmentally friendly, healthy, affordable, and — most importantly, perhaps — tasty, the Bezos Earth Fund will give $30 million to North Carolina State to create a new research center for these efforts. [Bezos Earth Fund]

Elissa Miolene contributed to this edition of Devex Dish.