managing director

Kees Blokland (Sliedrecht, 1955) is managing director of Agriterra. He studied Economic Sciences (VU Amsterdam, 1980) and Cultural Anthropology (VU Amsterdam, 1981). In 1992, he became a PhD in Social Sciences (RU Leiden) based on a study on the relationship between the work that rural people’s organisations carry out and economic development. These and other publications can be ordered by selecting “documents” on www.agro-info.net. He collected the material for his PhD study during an eight-year stay in Nicaragua (1982-‘90). While working for FAO, he was an advisor to the National Union of Farmers and Cattle Breeders (UNAG). From 1990 till 1997, he had a working relationship with the Paulo Freire Foundation (PFS). He initiated the creation of the international platform for rural people’s organisations, Vía Campesina (Mons, 1993). The farmers credit bank in Nicaragua owes its foundation in 1994 thanks to his mediation, amongst others.

In 1995, his lobby for an agrarian co-funding organisation met response at the Dutch Agricultural Board (Landbouwschap; Red.: a public discussion platform between farmers and the government which was closed in 2000) and in 1997 culminated with the foundation of Agriterra. He invited colleague agri-agencies to this first event in order to get acquainted. Five years later the creation of AgriCord, the alliance of agri-agencies, became a reality. In 1998, he initiated AgriPool, the employment agency of Agriterra for experts from rural people’s organisations.

Kees Blokland has been Vice-president of the Development Cooperation Committee (DCC) of IFAP from 2002 till 2006 and since June 2008 he became Vice-president of AgriCord.