Strategic Scientific Alliance on 'Sustainable Resource Management for Adequate and Safe Food Provision' (SURE+)

The project started in 2016 and will last until 2022. It consists of six sub-projects related to (1) Scale enlargement and environmental pollution, (2) Water pollution and water use in agriculture, (3) Improved manure management, (4) Institutional frameworks for adequate and safe food provision, (5) Impact assessment of resource management interventions, and (6) Integrated management interventions in food systems. Project leaders at the Wageningen side are dr. Xueqin Zhu(ENR), Prof. dr. Carolien Kroeze (WSG), Prof. dr. Oene Oenema (SOQ), Prof. dr. Peter Oosterveer (ENP) and dr. Maarten Voors (DEC).

The aim of the alliance is (i) to carry out interdisciplinary research on the land, water  and food nexus in China, (ii) to formulate coherent recommendations for adequate and safe food provision based on sustainable resource management, and (iii) to develop innovative methodologies that can be applied for examining similar problems in other parts of the world. It builds on existing long-term relationships of research groups in Wageningen with Nanjing Agricultural University (DEC), Tsinghua University, Beijing (ENR), China Agricultural University, Beijing (SOQ), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang (WSG).

Representatives from relevant ministries in China and from the industry (FrieslandCampina, Eurofins Agro Laboratories) take part in the alliance. A major expected output of the alliance is the creation of a Virtual Centre of Excellence of international repuation which will further the cooperation between social and natural scientists and other stakeholders in the governance of natural resources and environmental management of food systems in China and elsewhere in the world. To this purpose, the SuReFood alliance has been created.