News

In July 2018, Hanoi’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Rikolto started a new collaboration to setup PGS for safe vegetables in various locations around Hanoi. Supported by the Conservation, Food and Health Foundation, this project aims to build evidence of the benefits of PGS in order to replicate the model across Hanoi.

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.

On 28-30 May, Rikolto organised a 3-day workshop to design a new participatory guarantee system (PGS) for safe vegetables in Ha Nam province, marking the first step in the creation of the brand new PGS Ha Nam.

During 10 days from 14 to 23 April 2018, 19 entrepreneurs from Belgium cycled across 9 cities and provinces of Vietnam to raise funds for Rikolto.

Ever wondered about the difference between organic, safe, and conventional vegetables? In this series of 9 videos we aim to promote a better understanding of why consuming safe vegetables matters for consumers, farmers, and the planet.

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.

Since 2016, over 3,180 Vietnamese tea farmers have been trained by Rikolto (previously VECO) on sustainable land management practices as part of The Rainforest Alliance’s project “Mainstreaming Sustainable Management of Tea Production Landscapes”. Initial results show that farmers’ income has increased by an average of 30% due to a reduction in chemical use and higher prices for quality tea leaves.

In September 2017, VECO started the process of changing its name to Rikolto. Rikolto is the Esperanto word for ‘harvest’. (Esperanto is a language created to facilitate communication between people from across the world). We want farmers to have a brilliant harvest, and we want to especially harvest great new ideas and solutions to improve our food systems.