Traditional crops are more nourishing for people who eat them and for the soils in which they are grown, according to Mr. Fowler, and they are better at withstanding the wild weather delivered by climate change. The problem, he says, is that they’ve been ignored by plant breeders. His goal, through the new State Department initiative, is to increase the agricultural productivity of the most nutritious and climate-hardy among them.
The initial focus is on a half dozen crops in a half dozen countries Africa.
“return to the great variety of traditional crops that people used to grow more of, like cowpeas, cassava and a range of millets.” It’s odd that this article doesn’t mention more crops. I’m not sure about their ‘range of millets’, but one thing I know it that the problem with millet is that it contains goitrogens with can cause thyroid problems. Diversity of crops sounds like a good idea.
The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS)
https://www.state.gov/the-vision-for-adapted-crops-and-soils/