News & Insights

Rikolto is taking up the challenge to guarantee everyone access to healthy, sustainable and affordable food.

We're looking for an energetic and team player monitoring, evaluation and learning officer who wants to grow in an international network organisation! Apply by 8 January 2023.

What is a living income? How is it calculated? Why has it become important for governments, aid agencies and companies in the last few decades? Stephanie, member of the International Board of Directors at Rikolto, shares with us the current status of work on living income, and the solutions, investment, and synergies she has gathered from stakeholders in Peru and in the world. 

How easy do supermarkets in Belgium make it for us to eat sustainably? A comparative study by the Questionmark Foundation, with the support of Rikolto and Test Aankoop, and in collaboration with BOS+, IEW, FoodWIN and Bond Beter Leefmilieu, sought an answer to this question. Following these research results and recommendations from Superlist, Rikolto organised a meeting on 8 December 2022 with key players in retail and sustainability, in the form of a panel discussion called the 'SuperDialogue'.

The VOICE network, a broad coalition of civil society organisations, has just launched the Cocoa Barometer 2022, renewing its plea for a systemic change by taking simultaneous action on three separate dimensions: good agricultural practices; good governance policies; and good purchasing practices. In this article, we unpack how these actions look in our programme.

The Flemish Minister of Agriculture and Food, Jo Brouns, presented the text of the Flemish Food Strategy at November 30 during the Food Summit in Roeselare. Rikolto contributed to the development of the strategy, but also takes a critical look at the result and the follow-up.

At Rikolto, we have defined 10 principles of regenerative agriculture to guide our projects and collaborations, in this article Lola Pochet explains what this means for the organisation moving forward.

Thanks to the implementation of the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) – a safe and traceable production system promoted by Rikolto and the Hanoi PPD – around 3,200 households (of which 65% are women) are now participating in more than 1,900 hectares of safe vegetable production, accounting for 14% of Hanoi's vegetable production area.

Rikolto launched its cocoa and coffee programme in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. It has secured funding from the DGD to work with 13,000 cocoa farmers, governments and other stakeholders in the cocoa sector to ensure a living income for the producers.

What are supermarkets doing to promote plant-based and sustainably produced food, and to combat deforestation and food waste? A study on the supermarkets Colruyt, Delhaize, Carrefour, Aldi and Lidl shows that their impact on Belgium's ecological footprint is significant.

In spite of what the title might suggest, we’re not going to tell you the story of a Walt Disney princess who found the prince of her dreams. Our heroine is Merab, a sweet and charismatic young woman from Uganda. Our featured adventure is her Generation Food journey and her metamorphosis into a successful businesswoman, and beyond. Let’s start from the beginning.

Hope Dina is about to launch her own organic pesticide and fertiliser. The Generation Food programme in Uganda gave her a push to make her business idea come true. She hopes her story inspires government and private companies to create an environment that supports young entrepreneurs to flourish.

Rice is critical to Vietnam's socio-economic development, whereas rice cultivation is severely impacted by climate change. By applying the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard, rice farmers can now significantly reduce inputs and costs.

Deo runs Eastern Coffee, a coffee-roasting company in Mbale, Uganda. He is involved in Rikolto's Generation Food programme in Uganda. Learn about the values that guide him as a young agrifood entrepreneur, something he is eager to share with other young people on the same path.

In this podcast episode, Jelle talks with our colleague Robinson Nakwasa from Rikolto in Uganda and with Piloya Innocent. She is one of the promising entrepreneurs shaping the future of Uganda's food economy through the Generation Food-project.

Bui Thi Ngoc Duyen, a young woman, has successfully been applying the knowledge and skills she gained during a training course in her agricultural business. Her dream: becoming a safe agricultural product distributor.

As of 2021, a participatory guarantee system or PGS has been adopted by 43 vegetable cooperatives in the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. PGS is now recognised as a certification system for safe vegetables in Hanoi as well as in Vinh Phuc, Ha Nam, and Da Nang. How has this been achieved, and what does it mean for access to healthy and safe food in Vietnam? In this article, we tell you all about it.

In collaboration with Rikolto and the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems, FAO released on 29th July 2022 the Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Sourcebook – From Production to Food Systems.

Together with ILVO, Inagro, three producers of chickpeas, three processors (Greenyard, Deldiche and Abinda), supermarket chain Delhaize and the NGO Rikolto, Arteveldehogeschool will investigate for two years how the chickpea grown in Flanders can become economically viable.

Awa watched her son leave 7 years ago from Burkina Faso to pursue better economic opportunities. When the 28-year-old Adama was forced to return, he found that members of the farmers' cooperative of his community were calling on him to join. What opportunities did mother and son find in collaborating for a more professional farmers' organisation?

Tuy Loan is a vegetable cooperative in Vietnam that, after 5 years of working to professionalise its operations and improve access to markets, has succeeded in increasing the income of its farmers and the quality of its vegetables. From supplying only one food store, it now supplies high-quality vegetables to several supermarkets and stores in Da Nang, Vietnam. In this article, our colleague Nguyen Thi Den tells us how they did it.

Besides trying to keep up with fast-paced population growth, cities in Africa have been facing several other crises, such as pandemics, climate change and war. Amidst these challenges are also opportunities on the road to recovery of local food systems.This is the reason why for this #AfricanCITYFOODmonth campaign, Rikolto has decided to put innovation and multi-stakeholder collaborations as game-changers to strengthen resilience within cities’ food systems.

One of the approaches that Rikolto promotes in our sustainable production strategy is the practice of regenerative agriculture. In this article, we share insights from Pasar Rakyat Bali, our Food Smart Cities partner that has been putting regenerative farming into action.

On the way to COP26, sixteen Farm to Fork local dialogues were organised in Wales, Scotland, Philippines, Peru, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mexico, Kenya, Ecuador, South Africa, and Belgium to help build trust between farmers and local policymakers. Rikolto facilitated the dialogues in Ecuador and in Belgium. Discover the materials harvested during these dialogues!

SMEs usually make up over 90% of businesses in the agri-food sector, create half the sector’s economic value, provide more than half its jobs, and handle more than half the food consumed. In Burkina Faso, Hado, a food entrepreneur with 40 years of experience running informal businesses joined an entrepreneurship programme funded by Enabel to professionalise her business idea. Learn about the beginning of her story in this article.

This school year we experimented with offering smoothies and soup at several secondary schools in Antwerp. The smoothies and soup made of vegetable and fruit surpluses. This is done through a wonderful cooperation with Foodsavers of the city of Antwerp, delivered to the school gate! The fact that they are made from food surpluses is the reason for a very accessible price. All of this is part of the Get Wasted project.

Rikolto is looking for an analytical and reliable Finance and Accounting Officer. You will be part of an enthusiastic and diverse international team. We look forward to welcoming you to a warm environment. Something for you? Then send your cover letter and CV before the 3 of July. But don't wait so long. We look forward to meeting you soon!

We are looking for a Cocoa and Coffee Programme Manager for Ghana. Do you want to join our team to contribute to making these sectors more #sustainable, #competitive and inclusive? Apply until the 30 June 2022!

During three days, more than 40 producers, academics and government representatives from Peru and Ecuador gathered in Cajamarca (Perú), for an exchange of experiences and lessons on mitigating the carbon footprint of coffee production. It was the kick-off event of the project “More coffee and less CO2” project in Ecuador that aims to encouragee strategies and policies for high yields of carbon neutral coffee.

We're looking for an energetic and friendly management assistant who wants to grow in a support role with a wide variety of tasks. Apply by 18 May 2022.