The People 4 Earth Foundation has received a subsidy of €691.000 from the Kansen voor West III - REACT EU (Opportunities for West III - REACT EU program) to work together with Leiden University, Agriplace, Nedato, ZLTO, GreenYard and Nature's Pride on making the agricultural chains of open field cultivation more sustainable.

Increasing demands from the market and the government & EU

Rapid growth in sustainability requirements and standards from supermarkets, trading companies and legislation in Europe has significantly increased the administrative burden for growers and buyers. This new project aims to help reduce the administrative burden for growers and other supply chain partners by further digitalising compliance processes and by making it much easier to share sustainability information between all stakeholders within the chain.

Project plan for making agricultural chains sustainable in open field cultivation.

Dutch agriculture must make a major transition in the coming years to a sustainable and resilient sector, based on a good revenue model for growers and other supply chain parties.

The People 4 Earth Foundation (P4E) and Leiden University are joining forces, and together with partners from the business community, in order to take a big step forward with this project plan in making the sector more sustainable. We do this, among other things, by making the lives of growers and buyers easier by helping to reduce administrative burdens and increasing insight into sustainability. This is done by reducing duplication that occurs during the collection of sustainability information and increasing insight into sustainability goals and improvements.

This project will start with a complete inventory of the ongoing projects in relation to KPIs for sustainability in general and then specifically KPIs relating to open field cultivation. We will make use of existing collaborations with the Louis Bolk Institute, Boerenverstand, and Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and World Wildlife Fund.

To make the results of this project applicable to the sector, two software modules Green Chain and Green Farm are being developed within the existing Agriplace compliance platform. For example, a grower who must meet the requirements of multiple standards can use the new module to prepare audits for multiple standards at once and reuse data. The project plan runs from 2023 to 2025.

Total investment of € 1.7 million.

The total investment in this project amounts to more than € 1.7 million and is made possible by the obtained subsidy of € 691.000 and an investment from Agriplace BV of € 1.048.000. The subsidy obtained comes from Kansen voor West III - REACT EU (Opportunities for West III - REACT EU program), via the support centre of the province of North Holland. The program is mainly financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Participating Partners

The success of our project is made possible through the collaboration with various partners from the agricultural industry and knowledge institutes. Some of our key partners are:

• People 4 Earth Foundation: Initiator of the project, with the mission to facilitate and accelerate sustainable developments in the food production chain.

• Leiden University: Leading partner in research and development in the field of environmental sciences and sustainable management of the environment.

• Agriplace BV: Innovative developer of the Agriplace platform, which enables compliance management and communication in agricultural chains.

• Greenyard: One of the largest trading and processing companies in fruit and vegetables, with a strong focus on sustainability.

• Nature's Pride: Leading trading company in fresh fruit and vegetables, with a strong commitment to sustainable purchasing.

• ZLTO: Association of more than 13,000 growers and horticulturalists, active in making agricultural chains more sustainable.

• Nedato: Grower's cooperative with a focus on quality potatoes and a strong commitment to sustainability.

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