News

Since April 18 of this year, Nicaragua faces a deep socio-political crisis. Rikolto works in the cocoa, vegetable and coffee sector. Due to general insecurity and protesters’ barricades (until July), there was generally less mobility and trade, which affected the functioning of the cooperatives and the livelihoods of the farmers.

On 30 July, Vietnam National University of Agriculture and Rikolto organised the workshop “10 years of Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in Vietnam: Sharing lessons and introducing a new PGS training toolbox”. The event concluded a one-year project funded by the Agroecology Learning Alliance in Southeast Asia to capitalise PGS experiences in Vietnam for upscaling and institutionalisation.

How do we feed the world with zero land expansion and ocean depletion? What is good food? How can we end malnutrition? How can new technology save our food system? These were just some of the questions raised during the EAT Food Forum 2018. Chris Claes, Executive Co-Director of Rikolto, attended the event, which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, on 11 and 12 June.

A glimpse into the future of the current food system shows massive challenges ahead for the 7.6 billion people currently inhabiting the planet. Based on that concern, Rikolto is picking up its pace in securing food for the future through the involvement of consumers, especially young people. Why young people?

Is food a priority in Latin American city policies? And how do cities address food-related issues? These were the main questions raised during the seminar “Developing sustainable food systems in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean”, organised by the FAO. Rikolto took part in the event.

For the last two years, Rikolto has been implementing a big project in Uganda, called Food Trade. The project linked smallholder staple food surpluses to regional markets. At the end of the project we noticed that farmers received 12% better prices for their commodities relative to the prevailing market prices.

Between 29 January and 4 February 2018, representatives from 6 Regional Offices and Rikolto’s International Office met to design Rikolto’s International Food Smart Cities programme for the next four years.

On 30 November 2017, NICAFES, the Nicaraguan platform for sustainable coffee, was launched. The initiative brings together more than 25 unions, exporters, service providers, educational institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations supporting Nicaragua's coffee sector.