Covid response

Covid-19 drastically disrupted the lives of our colleagues and the people we work with. It also magnified the vulnerabilities already existing in food systems worldwide:

• 6,079 farmers members of our partner cooperatives participated in online training provided by Rikolto and our partners from March 2020 to January 2021.

• Between March 2020 and January 2021, we supported 6,548 farmers to purchase or acquire inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, etc.

• We supported our partner cooperatives to continue their work in the safest way possible. 13,492 producers, processors and other chain actors were provided with personal protective equipment (like masks and gloves) through our interventions. 71,929 people were trained on or informed of biosafety protocols.

• Through communications campaigns on Covid-19 and food on social media, in roadshows and radio jingles in Tanzania, Peru, Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua, an estimated 4.9 million citizens was reached between March and January.

• Between March 2020 and January 2021, we supported 15,525 farmers to diversify their production and hence income, during the pandemic.

• Rikolto has supported 17,887 farmers globally to set up and adopt e-commerce and food distribution practices in times of Covid-19, to strengthen their access to markets.

• In Indonesia, 14,825 citizens of Depok, Solo and Bandung benefited from food sharing and food transformation activities; good for a total of 6.6 tons of food waste avoided. In Belgium, 66,620 litres of Robin Food soup were produced from surplus vegetables.