For this reason, the Netherlands Food Partnership (NFP) and Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP) set up a partnership on ‘Saline Water & Food Systems’ (SW&FS) with the objective to strengthen cooperation between the Dutch water and agrifood sectors to address the challenge of salinity in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The partnership consists of knowledge institutes, a broad variety of the business community including innovative SMEs, and locally operating experts. It is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.
Objective
The overall goal of the partnership is to strengthen the cooperation of the Dutch Saline Water and Food Systems sector in the international context to address the challenge of salinity. Responses to salinity depend on the local context and can range from mitigating (e.g. salinity intrusion prevention) to adaptive actions (e.g. salt-tolerant crops). The Netherlands has a solid and promising position in both areas, largely based on interventions implemented in the coastal zone of the country. In addition, the Netherlands is internationally known for its integrated perspective on water management and its sustainable food systems approach. It is important to have a good understanding of the issue locally and address salinity in an integrated and systematic way.
The ambition is to create more impact by initiating new research or collaboration activities, that result in implementation projects in LMICs, to achieving SDG2 and SDG6.
Activities
The SW&FS Partnership will primarily stimulate collaboration between Dutch partners with an international focus on salinity. We will strategically align with organisations or new initiatives with a focus on addressing salinity in the Netherlands. Good collaboration in the Netherlands is a starting point to profile the partnership’s expertise and ambitions abroad. The partnership, facilitated by NFP and NWP, will work on a number of activities: