Buckwheat: a gluten-free and insect-friendly crop

Research has shown that at any given moment during peak flowering, one hectare of the buckwheat field has an average of 6,500 wild pollinators

Buckwheat makes for a great cover crop, enhancing the health of the soil, while its dense canopy suppresses weeds

Organic farmer Kees Sijbenga looks at the sea of white and pale pink blossoms before him. It is mid-July and millions of tiny buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) flowers sway in the wind on the plot he is cultivating in the Dutch province of Drenthe. Sijbenga is delighted that the crop is buzzing with a multitude of insect pollinators. “I’m so happy to be growing buckwheat,” says the third-generation farmer.

Sijbenga is one of 23 farmers in the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe in the north-east of the Netherlands who are part of an ambitious, nature-inclusive agricultural project to re-establish buckwheat farming in the country.