Issues and projects

Transforming Africa’s Urban Food Environments through Strengthening Linkages between Food Systems Stakeholders in Cities across the Continent and Europe

The European SchoolFood4Change project (SF4C), funded by Horizon 2020, aims to make sustainable and healthy food in schools the norm.

Healthy and sustainable food for every child, at every school. From class to canteen.

Through the GoodFood@School initiative in Hanoi, Rikolto is focusing on raising awareness, knowledge and practices of healthy, sustainable, and nutritious (HSN) food. The aim is to create a healthy food school environment and empower the next generation to make informed and responsible food choices!

This initiative pilots a new school food procurement model in Indonesia, linking smallholder farmers practising regenerative agriculture with schools in Surakarta, Depok, and Denpasar. Its goal is to strengthen local food systems so that children in urban and peri‑urban areas have reliable access to fresh, nutritious, locally sourced meals.

A healthy diet at school is essential for the health and development of children and adolescents. In Belgium, our approach focuses on schools in Leuven, Ghent and Antwerp, where we work with students, teachers, parents, management, kitchen staff... around nutrition.

Good Food at School strengthens school food systems in Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Dakar and Thiès, improving nutrition and local sourcing for students.

With 'Ideas that Nurture', we are striving to support sustainable solutions that improve children’s access to nutritious food, strengthen the local economy, and respect the environment in Quito, Ecuador.

Once a global powerhouse in robusta coffee, eastern DR Congo has seen production collapse over the past three decades. This five-year initiative supports 12,000 coffee farmers to regenerate robusta production through sustainable farming, inclusive markets, and stronger cooperatives, while protecting forests and children’s rights.

Vietnam's rice production is essential to its economy and food security, with the Mekong Delta serving as the country's main production area. However, rice farming faces major sustainability challenges, including high methane emissions, excessive water use, and environmental degradation. This project aims to promote sustainable rice farming by introducing climate-smart practices that are benchmarked against the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard, and by facilitating fair value chains that reward farmers for making sustainable choices.

Rikolto implements a five-year project (2022-2026) funded by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD), working closely with a wide range of stakeholders including farmers, cooperatives, the private sector, government and researchers, to address current challenges and facilitate a transition towards long-term resilience, inclusion and sustainability in the rice sector.

The Climate Resilient Businesses for Wetland Adjacent Communities initiative brings aBi, Rikolto and private food system partners together to transform landscapes and livelihoods. How? By restoring over 25,000 hectares of degraded wetlands and helping 50,000+ farmers shift from wetland cultivation to sustainable upland alternatives.

The Climate-Smart Cocoa Farming among Smallholders for Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (CCAM) project aims to improve community welfare, particularly for farmers, by introducing climate-smart agroforestry practices that support local ecosystems. CCAM also opens up economic opportunities for women and young people in agriculture and plantation sectors. Funded by CISU and implemented by Rikolto together with Preferred by Nature (PbN), we work with 3,300 cocoa farmers and 500 women and young people in Lampung.

Through the CULTIVAFE Project, local farmers are stepping into a future where sustainable practices, innovation, and strong partnerships open doors to global markets. With youth and women at the forefront, this initiative is not only improving livelihoods but also shaping a resilient coffee landscape for generations to come.

In Burkina Faso, Rikolto works with stakeholders in the rice sector to provide consumers with healthy, nutritious and sustainable rice at an affordable price, while creating income, profits and decent jobs and reducing the sector's negative environmental impact for future generations. The project aims to sustainably transform the rice sector in Burkina Faso.

The Women for Chocolate programme is a three-year initiative dedicated to strengthening cocoa-growing communities in Ghana by focusing on women’s empowerment, livelihoods, nutrition, and climate resilience. Through collaborative action, the project seeks to create thriving, self-sustaining communities capable of securing their futures while cultivating sustainable cocoa.

This project, funded by the Belgian Cooperation (DGD), aims to strengthen sustainable and competitive rice value chains, increase farmers' incomes, and improve access to quality food products on the market. The project encourages the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices and the establishment of inclusive trade relationships to create an environment conducive to a more resilient rice food system.

With the support of the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation (DGD), Rikolto supports rice actors in Senegal in the transition towards more sustainable and resilient production. By supporting the adoption of the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard, the strengthening of inclusive trade relationships, and the establishment of multi-stakeholder policy dialogue, the project contributes to improving farmers' incomes, creating opportunities for youth and women, and reducing the environmental footprint of rice farming.

In Mbale, AfriFOODlinks works with local partners to cut food waste, boost safety in markets and abattoirs, and promote nutritious meals in schools.

Supporting youth- and women-led businesses to improve inclusion in the food system.

Setting up their own enterprises to produce, process or package food in a sustainable way can provide young Burkinabe with a decent income, while also tackling key issues related to the sustainability of our food system. They bring a breath of fresh air to the local food system.

Changing an unsustainable and exclusive food system into an innovative, sustainable and inclusive one driven by youth to build a strong and resilient Mbale and Gulu.

In Tanga, the INCLU-CITIES SASA project supports women and youth entrepreneurs to grow greener businesses and create safer, more sustainable food markets.

Funded by the Livelihoods Carbon Funds (LCF) and in partnership with the Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Mekong Conservancy Foundation (MCF), this pilot project aims to establish a sustainable and low-emission rice model in Vietnam. It focuses on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water use in rice cultivation while improving soil and water biodiversity and increasing farmer income, laying the foundations for a future regenerative rice system.

Smallholder cocoa farmers face growing challenges due to climate change, which increases pests, diseases, and pressures on crop quality. Ecuador is the third-largest global producer with 1.7 million people relying on cocoa for their livelihoods. Climate change threatens the Ecuadorian cocoa industry, undermining farmer incomes and food quality. By introducing a low-carbon agriculture approach, we seek to address the impact of unpredictable weather conditions on growing cocoa by training 2,800 farmers in climate-smart agriculture.

Cocoa-dependent communities in Ghana’s Wassa Amenfi West District are highly vulnerable to climate change and face increasing market exclusion due to new deforestation regulations. This initiative supports their resilience by establishing Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) as platforms to design and implement locally led climate adaptation strategies.

Despite having an ideal climate and soil for agriculture, farmers in the Meru and Rungwe districts of Tanzania are struggling to realise their potential due to the effects of climate change, water scarcity, and socio-economic factors. Don't miss out on this inspiring project of resilience and innovation.

The Green Belt in Ouagadougou used to be a protective green lung for the city, but it has gradually lost its vitality. The Flanders International Climate Action Programme, funded by the Government of Flanders, the Municipality of Ouagadougou and Rikolto, aims to restore it. The project involves restoring degraded land, planting native trees and promoting agroecological farming practices. These efforts aim to regenerate the landscape and strengthen the resilience of the women and young people who depend on it.

The CREA project promotes strategies to strengthen and improve the sustainability, competitiveness, innovation and integration in the European market of 33 SMEs and 24 farmer organisations, while ensuring fair employment and decent work with inclusive practices for vulnerable groups. CREA is led by Rikolto, in partnership with Asociación Nacional de Fabricantes de Alimentos y Bebidas (ANFAB), Cooperación al Desarrollo de Países Emergentes (COSPE), Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) and KU Leuven. This project is funded by the European Union.

In Indonesia, more than 93% of families consume rice daily, with the average person eating around 114 kg of rice per year. A five-year project (2022-2026) funded by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) and implemented by Rikolto aims to provide Indonesian consumers with sustainable, healthy and affordable rice while increasing the resilience of local value chains, with a specific focus on those in the most vulnerable positions: smallholder farmers, women and youth.

Funded by the Government of Flanders (Flemish International Climate Action Program), the project was developed with Ecosystem Equity (formerly Greenfi) and is also implemented in partnership with TARI-Ifakara. It aims to increase access to climate finance to support the transition of smallholder rice farmers from conventional to sustainable rice production.

Local food systems and a healthy diet are interconnected in many ways. The Project "People-Centred Food Systems with a Human Rights-Based Approach" promotes capacity building to move from theory to practice towards an effective realisation of the right to food, with healthy and affordable diets.

Healthy Wave is a three-year European project that helps cities develop healthy, sustainable, and affordable school meal policies, especially for children at risk of poverty. Led by 11 partners across 8 countries, it provides practical tools, local strategies, and a toolkit to turn policy into action.

We focus on creating sustainable and inclusive agri-food systems to address the challenges of hunger, malnutrition, and environmental issues in Latin America. By empowering farmers, supporting small businesses, and connecting local efforts with public policy, we aim to improve food security and create socio-economic and environmental benefits for both urban and rural communities.

The resilience of the Beninese rice sector is at stake due to the severe impacts of climate change and its still weak commercial performance on local markets. In consortium with the National Consultative Council of Rice Farmers of Benin (CCR-B) Rikolto is implementing interventions to "Strengthen the resilience of actors against climate change in the rice sector in Benin and sustainably supply cities with healthy rice" as part of a larger programme (DEFIA - Development of Entrepreneurship in Agricultural Sectors, implemented by Enabel with DGD grants.

The second phase of the project "A new generation of Ivorian entrepreneurs and cocoa farmers" aims to empower 200 young people and create 5 youth-led businesses in the San-Pedro region by improving access to finance, entrepreneurial training, and digital skills.

The PeaPact2-project wants to put yellow peas in the spotlight to stimulate the protein transition from animal protein to plant-based protein in Flanders. It focuses on cultivation, processing and commercialisation of yellow peas in Flanders and wants to create a local and sustainable protein supply chain.

Rikolto and Groene Kring bring together farmers and citizens to have conversation about our food in a series of dialogue sessions. Participants shared a lot of values and arguments and this formed the basis for an open conversation about the future of farming and nutrition.

This project examines the Flemish food environment in order to raise awareness about the influence of food environments and stimulate actions to make healthy choices more accessible. It is a citizen science project, which means that everyone can participate.

Cajamarca leads Peruvian coffee shipments abroad. However, in the long run this will not be enough to improve the standard of living of producers. The project implements sustainable management and resilience plans in the face of climate change, resulting in prosperity for the coffee region and its producers.

The project seeks to increase vegetables production, postharvest handling and marketing with emphasis on promotion of regenerative agriculture practices and consumption of healthy, sustainable, and nutritious foods.

Kungahara is a 3-year project (2024 – 2026) funded by the European Union and implemented by Rikolto in partnership with Kilimo Trust Rwanda and Rwanda Consumer's Rights Protection Organization (ADECOR) to boost the production and consumption of healthy, sustainable, and nutritious food to enhance nutrition security and local food system resilience in the region.

With activities in Greater Masaka, and in collaboration with Export Trading Group(ETG), Rikolto is promoting sustainable and low-carbon coffee production in the region. The ‘Change Brewing’ project aims to advance Carbon-Low coffee in Robusta growing regions in Uganda

Senegalese farmers grow quality bananas, ready for local and export markets.

Helping young people to find stable employment and income, halting rural-urban migration and boosting local economies.

Thanks to government cooperation, World Bank funding and the implementation of the PICAGL programme, new dynamics are emerging in the rice value chain in South Kivu and Tanganyika in DRCongo. Increased productivity, sustainable production and high-quality local rice are creating new business opportunities for farmers and young people.

We examine the efforts of Belgian and European supermarkets to make the food system more sustainable. We share these research results with citizens, policy makers, civil society and the food sector. That is how we encourage supermarkets to take up their social responsibility. Superlist is a collaboration with the Dutch think tank Questionmark.

Inclusive business and sustainable agribusiness with resilient crops, providing decent incomes for entrepreneurs and producing families in Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala and Peru.

The Urban Heat Island initiative in Depok City aims to reduce the Urban Heat Island effect and improve climate adaptation by addressing the challenges of rapid urbanisation.

Ugandan rice production by smallholder farmers has expanded greatly, and in order for more space for rice production, farmers turn wetlands into paddy fields. Wetland conservation is crucial for adaptation to climate shocks and variability to better absorb stress caused by climate change, and to limit climate change exposure. Rikolto is implementing the "Climate Mitigation and Adaptation for Uganda Rice Sector" project, funded by the Flemish International Climate Action Programme to contribute to Uganda's wetland conservation and climate change mitigation in the rice sector through the widespread adoption of environmentally friendly rice production practices according to the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP) standard.

Franchising allows them to improve the quality of home-parboiled rice, and sell it at a higher price

A young community of innovators wants to give their peers a sustainable future through inclusive businesses in food systems.

Over the next five years, fifteen farmers will be trained to become 'carbon farmers'. The ultimate goal? To establish a carbon farming model for farmers in Belgium to ensure carbon sequestration.

Together with the city council, Rikolto will support initiatives to increase food safety in grains and horticulture sectors, leading to better market opportunities for the farmers and healthier food for the people in and around Arusha.

Mbeya, the biggest urban centre in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania, faces several challenges in providing safe and nutritious food to its citizens. Discover the bountiful harvest of an innovative and collaborative effort to address those issues.

Building an inclusive and competitive fruit and vegetable sector in Tanzania that supports farmers and contributes to job creation and food and nutrition security.

Supporting a new generation of cocoa entrepreneurs and producers in Côte d’Ivoire to reach their full potential and have a positive impact on their communities.

Colruyt Group and Rikolto collaborate with Ivorian cooperative Entreprise Cooperative de Saint Paul, Fairtrade Belgium, the chocolate processor Puratos and UGent to make Colruyt Group's private label chocolate sustainable from bean to shelve.

A civic movement in Belgium to make sustainable food the new normal in supermarkets

Rice farmers' organisations in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal are improving their competitiveness and their relations with the private and public sectors to win back larger shares of the rice market in West Africa.

PGS is a reliable and affordable quality assurance mechanism that enables farmers to increase their income while helping build consumers’ trust in their food.

Building Kampala's future as a sustainable and inclusive food system

Eight rice cooperatives in the Ruzizi valley join forces and win the hearts of beer and rice fans.

Farmers, fishermen, actors in tourism and energy sector work together to find solutions to alleviate the ever-growing pressure on lake Apanás.

Small-scale coffee farmers prepare to export high quality organic Arabica coffee.

Led by Carbon Farm and in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), we're piloting a model to reduce barriers to using carbon credits to finance and accelerate Vietnam's transition to sustainable rice.

The Cocoa Livelihoods Improvement Programme tackles some of the toughest challenges facing cocoa farmers in Ghana today. By focusing on access to finance, income diversification, regenerative agriculture, and child labour remediation, the programme seeks to transform cocoa-growing communities into resilient, thriving hubs of sustainable development.

This programme supports 3,425 coffee producers, especially women and youth, in nine RWACOF coffee washing stations by promoting income diversification and livelihood improvement. It is co-funded by Rikolto and SUCAFINA Rwanda through the Kahawatu Foundation Rwanda.

We develop business models that make the products accessible for vulnerable groups and offer a viable business to the companies that produce them.

Empowering Javanese smallholder rice farmers to improve their businesses through sustainable rice cultivation.

A new movement stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture and food.

The KIKET-project investigates whether and how local cultivation and processing of chickpeas in Flanders can be achieved. Currently, the price of locally cultivated chickpeas is way higher than the world market price because of the small scale of cultivation, so we want to determine the ideal scale of cultivation.

Fostering a more robust entrepreneurship ecosystem to bring economic prosperity to communities heavily affected by migration within Guatemala.

Farmers in northern Tanzania are changing their farming practices to make the whole community more resilient to climate change and covid-19.

Rikolto will support traders and exporters to explore new ways of doing business with organisations of smallholder farmers. A better market position of these farmer organisations is the end goal.

Carbon-neutral coffee production in agroforestry systems in Ecuador and Peru.

Ecuador’s rich cuisine owes its diversity to the country’s varying altitudes of specific geographic zones and its associated agricultural conditions. The growing population worldwide and in Ecuador as well, urges for future solutions to feed people quality and affordable food, especially urban consumers. City policies can offer opportunities for farmers and push food production and consumption towards more sustainability.

Everyone has the right to healthy, sustainable and culturally appropriate food. Yet many people still can't call this their reality. Rikolto and a consortium of organisations, Ecosad, the FUNSAD Foundation and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) are working to change this through a participatory and collaborative research project. Their objective is to explore the potential of 'food hubs' or 'neighbourhoods' in creating resilient urban food systems in Quito and Lima.

Increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of the regional cocoa sector through incidence in national an regional policies, and promoting knowledge management.

The collaboration between 21 farmer organisations, 3 universities and research centres from Central America and Belgium aims to develop innovations that respond to key challenges in the horticultural sectors of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras.

A climate-smart coffee involving the whole value chain

Lidl joins forces with Rikolto, Fairtrade and Kuapa Kokoo to produce and sell Way2Go: a chocolate bar that is 100% sustainable across the supply chain.

FEPROBA, the Federation of Farmers in the Anambe Basin, decided to test digital solutions to increase farmers’ statistical skills. The solutions were essential for the development of an effective rice commercialisation strategy, and to negotiate effectively with customers.

Empowering smallholder farmers of rice, cassava and soybean to transform Northern Uganda into a food basket for Uganda and its neighbouring countries.

Working together with farmer organisations, authorities and businesses to mainstream inclusive business practices for sustainable rice across the Vietnamese rice sector.

We professionalise producer organisations, working hand in hand with young people in rural areas. We also establish inclusive business links with cocoa companies, and focus on bringing more collaboration into the country's cocoa sector.

National rice farmers' organisations in Mali and Burkina Faso are supplying schools and public institutions with sustainable, high-quality rice, creating new local synergies that benefit farmers and consumers alike, and lobbying governments to formalise institutional market exchanges.

Horticulture is one of the few opportunities for small scale farmers to find a route out of poverty, Rikolto currently is working in Uganda and Tanzania with over 3,000 horticulture farmers to support inclusive business development to unveil their potential to transform the sector towards sustainability.

Through Eurosan Occidente, Rikolto is developing the initiative "Technology and dialogue of knowledge to promote food and nutritional security in Honduras", through which hydroponic systems will be installed in greenhouses to increase the production of healthy vegetables within family agriculture.

Rikolto works with the city of Da Nang, to increase consumers’ access to safe food and promote the use of sustainable production techniques to ensure a more sustainable and inclusive food system in Vietnam.

Young people of Nicaragua and Honduras focus on sustainable cocoa and turn it into a profitable business.

Rikolto promotes a profitable coffee business with added value for Flores coffee farmers and an open and fair coffee value chain.

Peruvian coffee is renowned for its quality and aroma; as such it occupies a special place on national and international markets.

Coffee is one of the products of the Ecuadorian economy that benefits rural families.

We support rural families to improve the sustainability of their farms, and link producer organisations with rewarding export markets.

Significant business opportunities remain for rice farmers. Future investments must enable smallholder farmers and processors to build their businesses in a sustainable way and to acquire new skills.

Climate change is a challenge for farmers around the world. This is no different for rice farmers in Iringa, Tanzania. Climate smart agriculture is the future; it is sustainable and profitable.

A unique project in which the Belgian Province of Flemish Brabant, Rikolto, retailer Colruyt Group and the University of Leuven together with young people, experts, farmers, etc. look for ways to feed the growing global population in a sustainable way.