By Abbas Nazil
A new UK-backed initiative aimed at enhancing climate adaptation in African agriculture has been launched, aimed at supporting smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa’s savannah regions.
The project, titled A Climate-Smart Agronomy Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (AgVACS), is a collaboration among Rothamsted Research, the UK-CGIAR Centre, and several partners in Ghana and Nigeria.
It brings together global experts to tackle pressing farming challenges linked to climate change, resource inefficiency, and soil degradation.
According to a press release, AgVACS is designed to improve the climate readiness of agricultural systems by introducing sustainable farming practices and underutilized legume crops that are more resilient to environmental stress.
The project is particularly significant for smallholder farmers, who make up approximately 80 percent of global agricultural holdings and produce around half of the world’s food.
These farmers, primarily in low- and middle-income countries, face recurring setbacks such as erratic rainfall, extreme droughts, floods, pests, diseases, and declining soil fertility.
AgVACS aims to address these issues by promoting climate-smart agronomic practices through CGIAR’s Sustainable Farming Science Program.
The initiative will focus research on crops like Bambara groundnut and pigeon pea, which are known for their adaptability and nutritional value.
Fieldwork will take place in northern Ghana and northern Nigeria, areas dominated by cereal-legume farming systems.
Christine Kreye, the project lead from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), highlighted the diversity and expertise of the consortium as key strengths.
She noted the balance of local and international knowledge as critical for effective implementation.
Professor Martin Broadley, Science Director at Rothamsted, expressed excitement over the collaboration and emphasized the project’s potential to deliver resilient cropping systems.
He noted that the work will help maintain high productivity and nutritional quality, improve soil health, and strengthen scientific ties between the UK and West Africa.
Broadley also pointed to the UK’s role in optimizing spatial information from both new and legacy data sources to support data-driven decision-making tools for African farmers.
In addition to IITA and Rothamsted, key partners include the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (ABC), CSIR–Savanna Agricultural Research Institute in Ghana, and Bayero University Kano (BUK) in Nigeria.
UK academic institutions involved include the Universities of Nottingham and Warwick.
The UK-CGIAR Centre, which is funded by the UK International Development program and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), provides core funding and coordination for the initiative.
AgVACS is positioned not only to improve the resilience and profitability of smallholder farmers in Ghana and Nigeria but also to serve as a scalable model for similar climate-smart agricultural initiatives across Africa.
With its emphasis on sustainability, nutrition, and climate resilience, the project marks a significant milestone in the global effort to transform food systems in vulnerable regions.
