With the need to provide food and energy for a global population of 9.5 billion by 2050, pressure on the use of space will increase. The world’s oceans and seas could provide the answer.

The Netherlands is stepping up its contribution towards achieving global food security. In Nigeria, a group of Dutch companies founded the Seeds 4 Change (S4C) programme, to support the local horticulture sector to become self-sufficient.

In November 2020, the online Week Of Indonesian Netherlands Education And Research (WINNER) kicked off. This was the first time that the plethora of forward-looking sustainable development initiatives in various fields of research and education came together on one platform.

Improving the productivity of smallholder farmers can make a large difference in meeting the ever-growing demand for healthy and nutritious food around the world. In the last four decades, Dutch tropical vegetable seed company East-West Seed (EWS) has provided millions of smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia with high-quality hybrid seeds, improving their productivity and standard of living.

How can we feed a growing world population while lessening the impact on the environment? Mexican-Dutch partnership HortiConnect believes nature itself provides the solutions. HortiConnect combines the power of data and advanced technology to optimise a plant’s natural growing power and resilience.

Human rights are the cornerstone of human dignity, freedom and development, and form the basis for open and free societies all over the world. The Netherlands supports human rights defenders and organisations, and awards one of them each year with the Human Rights Tulip award. This year the award went to Armenian LGBTI activist Lilit Martirosyan.

As food waste accounts for around one third of all food produced for human consumption globally, reducing food loss can contribute significantly to reaching food security. In Ethiopia and Djibouti, Flying Swans is creating a cool logistics network together with local partners.