The Dutch government and the EU are developing their positions and policies in the area of sustainable agriculture. Minister Ploumen and Secretary of State Dijksma plan to submit a joint Food Security policy note to parliament on World Food Day, October 16, 2014, which will include an important section on agro-ecology. Sustainability is also at the heart of the UN negotiations about a new Post-2015 development agenda.

This is the right moment to influence policy! On September 12, the Agri-ProFocus partnership organizes an Expert Meeting ‘Vision 2030: making current approaches work for sustainable agriculture. How can agro-ecology and other approaches support farmers to feed the world sustainably by 2030’. Agri-ProFocus invites experts and professionals from civil society, private sector, academia and the public sector (max. 80), whose expertise, knowledge and experiences are highly valuable in this debate.

The participants will jointly tackle a set of challenging questions:

Are approaches like “agro-ecological”  and “climate-smart” agriculture or the “landscape approach” effective to feed the world sustainably by 2030? What do these concepts mean in practice? Can these approaches support farmers and their organisations in low and middle income countries towards optimising and up-scaling their contribution to food security, locally and globally?

Experts from the private sector, civil society, and knowledge institutions will share their practice and their expertise:

• Volkert Engelsman (Eosta, International distributor of fresh organic fruits, vegetables and juices): Foster sustainability in the value chain.
• Christy van Beek (WUR/Alterra): The Fertile Grounds initiative, and the role of all stakeholders to collaborate for effective integrated soil management.
• Million Belay (Coordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa): Diversifying knowledge systems to foster effective sustainable agriculture in practice. Experiences from farmers in Ethiopia.

After general introductions, subgroups will focus on the questions above, and participants will be challenged to bring to the table practical ideas on how to mainstream sustainability aspects within different types of food and farming systems as well as in value chains. They will discuss how promising practice could be strengthened by a well-functioning enabling environment. This to generate recommendations for the Dutch Food Security Policy note.

The meeting will end with a panel discussion with amongst others Edith van Walsum (Ileia), a representative of Koppert (tbc) and Johan Gatsonides(Ministry of Economic Affairs) and Marcel Beukeboom (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Moderator of the discussion is Cora van Oosten (Senior Advisor NRM at CDI/WUR).

This event is by invitation only. In case you would like to know more about the event, or are interested in receiving an invitation or the meeting report afterwards, please contact 

The organizing committee for this meeting consists of: Peter Ton (Cordaid), Wim Hiemstra (ETC), Nathalie van Haren (Both ENDS), Heleen Bos (Rijk Zwaan), Christy van Beek (WUR/Alterra), Nicole Metz and Hedwig Bruggeman (Agri-ProFocus).