News & Insights

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.

We are looking for a team to develop a virtual learning platform for Rikolto that offers streamlined onboarding of new colleagues; internal courses and provides resources and training to develop relevant competences. Are you interested? submit your proposals by July 8, 2022!

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.

FAO and Rikolto are joining forces to set up two networks to increase policymakers’ awareness and capacity on urban food systems governance and to improve urban food markets so they can contribute to more sustainable food systems. Read more bout these 2 initiatives in this article.

Five years ago, we introduced you to Freddy Mairena, a Nicaraguan cocoa farmer. Freddy’s honest and friendly smile can be found today in the promotional images of the Boni "Nicaragua" chocolate in the Colruyt Group retail shops in Belgium. Here is Freddy’s story now: from producer to entrepreneur.

In this project, Rikolto sought to attract the young generation's interest in agriculture through digital-based farming and agripreneurship. 

Throughout the year, we can count on enthusiastic interns: sometimes, they surprise us with their social media magic, sometimes their study topic brings us new insights. Eva Van De Putte joined our Food Smart Cities team, and wraps up her internship with this blogpost, in which she unpacks the definition of food governance, inclusive markets and interconnectivity.

Rikolto joined forces with Colruyt Group, Entreprise Cooperative de Saint Paul (ECSP), Puratos, Access Agriculture, Agro Insight and Fairtrade Belgium to move towards a living income for cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast. One year after the start of the project, we take a look at the first results.

The agreement seeks to position and reinforce Peru's differentiation as an exporter of quality cocoa, with verified origin attributes and deforestation-free by 2025. Rikolto is joining 19 organisations from the cocoa value chain in the country to promote this important initiative, within the framework of the Coalition for Sustainable Production.

Fernando García went from producing in a monoculture model to developing a diversified farm cultivating cocoa, grains, fruit, and timber. The 67-year-old farmer learned about cocoa cultivation from scratch.

The Multistakeholder facilitation process - a toolkit offers the essential concepts, tools and attitudes needed to make multi-stakeholder collaboration work in food systems.

Are supermarkets helping us to eat sustainably? That question is the subject of a new comparative research by Questionmark Foundation, supported by Rikolto and Test Aankoop.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a concentration of 60% - the largest proportion - of potential young entrepreneurs in the world. However, young entrepreneurs are facing numerous constraints. What's more, they are being expected to come up with “Eat the World” ideas, when most of them became entrepreneurs out of a strong economic necessity.

Giving a further boost to Eastern Congo’s coffee sector thanks to additional micro washing stations: that is in the works in Rikolto’s new programme in the country. This way, we keep supporting cooperatives and farmers on their path towards economic independence.

50 inspectors of organic certification from 12 cocoa cooperatives in Honduras improved their capacities on the standards and certification processes in this system - contributing to their capacity to stay in the fair trade market, and allowing them to access better prices from chocolate companies such as Chocolats Halba.

Nayeli, 21 years old cocoa farmer dreamt of participating in one of the training courses on cocoa production under agroforestry systems, organised every year at the CURLA university in Honduras. She was over the moon when she found out last year that she could participate. In the course, she learned about so much more than good crop management. Find out how Rikolto and Colruyt Group through the Collibri Foundation became part of her dream.

In 2021, 85 Ecuadorian producer families of the farmer organisation UROCAL obtained a fair payment of 4,100 USD per MT of organic cocoa, a price 39% above what the market offers. The sale to the international brand Ethiquable rewards the good practices of the organisation, as well as the quality and productivity standards achieved with the support of the MOCCA programme of Technoserve and Lutheran World Relief, implemented by Rikolto and funded by USDA.

Imagine a world where everyone has access to nutritious, affordable food, where surplus foods are made available to those who need it most, and by-products and waste become inputs for new products... Circular economies can be a game-changer to transition to more sustainable food systems. Join us to learn more.

In Senegal, a subsidy brings the purchase price of paddy rice from 130 to 162 CFA per kilogram. 30 CFA francs go directly to rice producers, and 2 CFA francs go towards collateral management and certification. The decision is the result of an advocacy process in which Rikolto took part, through our partner CIRIZ.

We are looking for an international team of evaluators to design with us a new evaluation framework for the 2022-2026 programme period and to implement this framework in collaboration with local evaluators. Apply by 9 May.

According to the FAO, 55 percent of the improvement in food security achieved in developing countries over the past decades is thanks to programmes that empower women. In our Generation Food programme in Ouagadougou, we explicitly encourage young female entrepeneurs to join the workshops and incubators. Bénédicte Marie Reine Kinda (27) is one of them.

Among the oldest references known to the use of credit or loans in urban cities was Sumer, an ancient civilisation in Mesopotamia (3,500 B.C.). It was farming alone that prompted a method for receiving goods on the promise of future payment. Long since then, today access to credit for agriculture faces many challenges, although the importance of food is not in doubt.

A story about cucumber cultivation has to be fresh! So try it out for yourself by discovering how diversifying with cucumber production and guaranteeing a stable market for two farmers’ organisations, An Hoa and Minh, is contributing to increasing the income of farmers especially for ethnic groups in Vietnam. At the same time, it supports access to safe vegetables for the population.