News & Insights

In 2021, Rikolto, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) committed themselves to boost Kampala's urban farming future. On 12 November 2021, we closed our project in beauty. Explore the report here.

Worldwide, farmers are increasingly confronted with global challenges. A good business model is crucial in order to keep a business thriving. How do you create a sustainable and successful business model? Find out in our free online course developed in collaboration with ILVO, Rikolto, Fachhochschule Südwestfalen, Odisee and the KU Leuven Division of Bioeconomics.

We eat more meat than what would be good for us and for the planet. Unfortunately, changing our behaviour is not always easy. How can supermarkets play a role? Which techniques can they adopt to work their magic and make us eat less meat? And how do these techniques work?

On 10 November 2021, the project "Positioning Shade-Grown Cocoa to Improve Conservation and Rural Livelihoods" was launched to protect a critical piece of the world’s second-largest rainforest from deforestation due to cocoa agriculture.

The pathway to sustainable rice in Congo’s Great Lakes region continues thanks to the PICAGL programme, funded by the World Bank and facilitated by Rikolto. Since May 2019, 330 farmer field schools have been set up to disseminate and implement new farming techniques. The yields obtained were considerably higher but challenges come with rapid development.

On the 21st of November, one month after the YOUCA action day, Rikolto and Youca launched a new collaboration to support and encourage a new Generation of young food entrepreneurs to drive change towards a more sustainable and just food system.

How cities are tackling climate change through inclusive food actions?

As part of the Recipes For Resilience initiative, organised and led by Nourish Scotland at the COP26, Rikolto and RUAF hosted a session focusing on how cities from different geographies and stages in their food systems transformation journey are putting their local food ambitions into practice to tackle the climate crisis while ensuring social inclusion.

Tag along with 8 European Ambassadors on their trip to Njombe, Tanzania and visit two essential building blocks for a sustainable future: Home gardens & avocados seedlings.

To ensure food safety for all, we need transparency along the production process as much as along the processing and distribution processes. Last month, 30 agricultural producers and distributors successfully completed a 15-day training course on retail distribution of safe agricultural products part of the project "Building an ecosystem for a sustainable food supply chain" together with MEVI Vietnam.

Born in 1952, Rushendeka Kamanyula started growing rice at the age of 46 and has proven to be an “exemplary student” during the activities that are part of the Integrated Programme for Agricultural Growth in the Great Lakes region, PICAGL, led by Rikolto and financed by the World Bank. Discover his story and why how he came the person of reference for rice growers in the community of Kiliba.

In 2021, the Peruvian farmer organisation Pangoa is moving towards an ambitious agroforestry development plan that benefits its coffee and cocoa crops in alliance with Cooperative Coffees, one of its most important clients. The U.S. company has been investing $35,000 in this plan based on evidence from previous studies and initiatives of the farmer organisation developed with Rikolto and academia.

Can a family make a decent living from their cocoa plantation? Concrete experiences in Latin America and other continents where Rikolto works have shown that farming families can earn a living income, increase their resilience, and contribute to a sustainable production model in the cocoa chain.

On 28 and 29 September 2021, the second edition of the Generation Food Makeathon took place. For two days, a multidisciplinary group of students worked on prototypes of food products based on food waste. The winning group came up with a product that was as tasty as it was surprising.

An increasing number of local governments and food chain actors are looking for systemic, tailor-made and future-proof solutions to climate and food system challenges. Thanks to a long history of co-creating, supporting, and facilitating the development of food strategies with local governments and cities, Rikolto Limited, in collaboration with RUAF and Let Us, can support you to bring sustainable and resilient food systems to life in your city-region. Discover more about the work done with Sint-Niklaas, a Flemish city with a little over 76,000 inhabitants.

Youth is a driving force that could lead the agricultural transformation in Ghana’s cocoa farming communities and contribute to the reduction of unemployment in Tanzania. Our #YouthinAg ambassadors Yvonne and Hilda hosted a café session during the #ANDE Annual Conference sharing their insights of working with young farmers and entrepreneurs buzzing with fresh and innovative ideas. Time has come for young people to sit in the driver’s seat.

Central Java, Indonesia. By implementing demonstration plots, we encourage farmers to take ownership of new sustainable agricultural techniques. By training farmers to become trainers, we empower them to pass their knowledge down to others. And by -promoting the adoption of the SRP standard at government level, we aim to upscale our impact.

Already signed by close to 100 local authorities, the Glasgow Food & Climate Declaration is a commitment to tackle the climate emergency through integrated food policies. Rikolto is proud to have been a strong supporter of the Declaration from the beginning. During the #COP26, Rikolto will participate in the global "Fork to Farm" dialogue bringing together over 100 farmers and representatives of cities to encourage a mutual understanding of their challenges. We will also host a session with RUAF during the Recipes for Resilience event on how cities are leveraging their food policies in practice to tackle the climate crisis.

On 21 September 2021, the Vinh Phuc Provincial Department of Plantation and Plant Protection held a conference to announce the publication of the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) for safe vegetable application guidelines.

When Madeleine Delma, a 25-year-old agronomy student from Ouagadougou, spotted the Generation Food: Call for Young Entrepreneurs in Agribusiness online, she did not hesitate to apply. “I have always been fascinated by food processing.” She wanted to create a tomato sauce.

In a context of economic instability and climate change, improving agricultural competitiveness is the responsibility of more than 2,439,162 rural young people in Peru. In the last 4 years, Rikolto, in collaboration with partners, has generated a cycle of annual forums with 182 young producer leaders participating. Read the reflections of our colleague Lith Montes, coordinator of projects with young people in the coffee sector.

Our rice experts, John Ereng and Djalou Franco, took part in the AGRF 2021 conference to give their insights into Rikolto’s experience with introducing the SRP standard in East Africa, specifically referring to evidence from a project in Iringa, Tanzania (2019-2021). Watch the video!

Patricia Arce, project coordinator in Honduras, shares five lessons she has learned in piloting hydroponic systems for vegetable production with small-scale producers.

How to ensure that the quality and value of the product is assured from the farm to the table? On 31 August, more than 100 representatives of producers’ organisations, government agencies, food quality certification bodies and consumers attended the workshop titled "Building Value - From Quality Standards to Consumer Trust”.

Coomsempoda, a group of 114 farming families, had been badly affected by the pandemic and by the increasingly severe consequences of climate change. Despite this, in 2020, they obtained a loan from the Belgian social impact organisation Kampani. Thanks to their new washing and drying machine, they will increase the number of products offered as well as their safety!

In this new episode of Rikolto's podcast, in 7 minutes you will learn what agroforestry systems are all about, why their application in cocoa production could contribute to reducing the impact on the environment, and the effects suffered by cocoa-producing families due to climate change.

How efficiently does Rikolto deliver its results? We conducted 5 efficiency analyses to determine the social, economic and environmental return of each Euro invested in Rikolto projects. Read the key findings here.

Chocoben is an Ecuadorian company with more than 20 years experience producing and marketing of cocoa beans. After successfully completing an intensive training programme, Chocoben obtained their first loan to support cocoa enterprises from the credit cooperative Jardín Azuayo. Find out how Chocoben has used this opportunity.

Smallholders’ farmers earned a higher income using a quality assurance system in comparison with non-certified vegetables in Ha Nam, a province in northern Vietnam. A manual on how to set up a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) for vegetable farmers was launched in July 2021.

We are pleased to announce that Rikolto has recently joined the RUAF Global Partnership, a leading consortium of experts working on sustainable urban agriculture and food systems.

In Rancho Grande, Nicaragua, we look at the cup of coffee with a positive environmental, economic, and social impact for the families of coffee producers thanks to the win-win relationship promoted by Rikolto and the company Exportadora Atlantic S. A. (Expasa).