Dutch companies do contribute to food security in Ethiopia

Lenard Hofland of the Global Challenges Programme (GCP) project “Follow the Food”, has published an article in the context of “De Voedselzaak” – an online platform discussing the issue of how to feed 10 billion people in 2050 – stating that Dutch companies in Ethiopia do provide permanent jobs and most of all food on the Ethiopian market.

Lenard Hofland is a master student International Development Studies at the University of Utrecht and member of the research team of the GCP project Follow the Food. He has published an article entitled “Dutch companies do contribute to food security in Ethiopia” in the ideas corner of “De Voedselzaak” (The Food Case).

Hofland refers to an opinion article (in Dutch) by Ivo de Klerk, stating that agricultural investments in Ethiopia are not providing food for the local population and that promises to provide employment and knowledge sharing are not fulfilled. He then argues that during the four months of his graduation research for the Follow the Food project in Ethiopia, he experienced the opposite. He actually concludes that Dutch investments do contribute positively to local developments and food security.

Read the full article: “Dutch companies do contribute to food security in Ethiopia” (in Dutch).

About “De Voedselzaak”

The “Food Case” is a special online platform on which the Dutch newspaper “De Volkskrant” has discussed the complex issue of how to feed 10 billion people in 2050. A series of interesting reports, interviews, videos and opinion articles have been published during 2018 and the most interesting contributions have been bundled in an e-book.

On January 14, 2019, De Volkskrant organized an event in Pakhuis De Zwijger, to take stock and discuss what we have learned. Everyone will feel the effects of population growth and climate change, but they will have most impact in Africa. That is why the emphasis of the evening was on that continent.

Ellen Mangnus, development economist and project leader of the GCP project Follow the Food, was one of the panellists and focused on how aid and trade can be combined to tackle the issue of food security.

Please find an article about the evening, including a video of the full programme, here:  ”Bevolkingsgroei biedt ook kansen; bekijk onze slotavond terug” (in Dutch).