Rikolto awarded VUFO's Certificate of Merit in 2021

On December 21st, 2021, Dr. Hoang My Lan - Regional Director, representative of Rikolto in Vietnam received a Certificate of Merit from VUFO for the positive results achieved in 2021.

The programme named “Supporting Inclusive and Sustainable Agricultural Value Chain Development Benefitting Smallholder Farmers in Vietnam”, funded by the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD), has been implemented by Rikolto in Vietnam in the period of 2017-2021.

Despite the difficulties encountered in 2021 due to the long-term impact of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions, Rikolto's programmes achieved the goals set for this year:

• By the end of October, 37 rice and vegetable cooperatives had received support from Rikolto. 5,158 direct beneficiaries and 33,908 indirect beneficiaries were reached.
• Thanks to the application of the Sustainable Rice Platform model, farmers are estimated to reduce production costs by 12% per hectare, equivalent to nearly 3 million VND.
• Almost 300 farmers including ethnic minorities in the Tuyen Quang province joined a successful model for the production and commercialisation of cucumbers.
• Four provinces, including Ha Nam, Vinh Phuc, Hanoi and Da Nang,** institutionalised the participatory guarantee system (PGS) **for vegetable production.

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To prepare for a new working approach – the food system approach, Rikolto strengthens its consultation activities with partners including Government agencies, research institutes, private sector, farmer cooperatives as well as agricultural service suppliers to co-designed interventions. To address the emerging needs, especially in the context of Covid spreading in Vietnam, Rikolto has contributed to promoting a safe food ecosystem by training food distributors and then connecting them with food ecosystems.

These positive results achieved in 2021 will be a premise, that helps Rikolto build partnership with relevant stakeholders to bring about broader impacts. In the coming period, Rikolto will facilitate collective actions by working with different food system actors to jointly come up with solutions meeting the needs of all parties involved, and ensures that agricultural products are produced safely, sustainably, affordable and accessible to all consumers.

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