Department of International Cooperation

We specialize in research, development cooperation and capacity building activities concerning organic sector-, market- and value chain development in low income countries. Building on vast expertise in applied research and development cooperation, we implement most of our work together with partner organizations and a large network of local and international experts. We support both the public and private sector in planning, implementing and evaluating projects aiming to foster sustainable agriculture and agro-ecological production systems.

Our focus is on resolving problems and finding pragmatic solutions for the targeted beneficiaries, clients and partners. Our role varies in each case, depending much on the given context and scope of each project. In our work, we strongly rely on our social competence to complement our thematic expertise. With 40 years of experience in organic farming and our expertise in market and sector development in the international context, we consider ourselves to be a strong, flexible and efficient partner for work that relates to and goes beyond our working themes:

• Applied farming systems research and best practice development to foster sustainability
• Agroforestry and mixed cropping design and implementation in arid and tropical contexts
• Development of business ventures to link up smallholders and companies with European buyers
• Extension and capacity development support for farmer groups, service providers and processing and trading companies
• Project evaluations and assessment  to support decision-making of both public and private sector funded interventions