F&BKP Steering Committee
Member
Heleen Bos is responsible for Foreign Development Projects and Account Manager Organics at Rijk Zwaan. Heleen has more than 20 years of experience in development projects; she lived and worked in Mozambique, Nicaragua, Bangladesh and Spain.
From January 1988 till July 1994, Heleen worked for the Dutch Development Organisation S.N.V. at the Instituto Nicaraguense de Tecnologia Agopecuarua in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. She was Adviser on participatory extension methods, enterprise development & gender policy and strategy; and Researcher on farmers and local seed systems in small-scale farming.
From May 1997 till January 2001 she worked in Bangladesh for DG Interprojects GmbH as Consultant/Deputy Team Leader on Farmer Based Seed Enterprise Development (Training/Gender Expert).
Since 2007 Heleen is responsible for international contacts and content development of Rijk Zwaan’s small scale projects on vegetable production in developing countries. She is involved in projects in Tanzania, Kenya, Guatemala and Peru. One of her main projects is in Tanzania with Afrisem, which aims at developing improved varieties of African vegetables to local farmers and developing the horticultural sector in Tanzania and Kenya. These hybrid varieties should enable growers to realise a good yield, be resistant to any pests and diseases and meet the wishes of the local market.
Heleen has also a commercial task within Rijk Zwaan as Account Manager for the Organic Programme worldwide.