Empowering rural farmers through sustainable agricultural development

In January 2016, I joined the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) due to a shared conviction that a more sustainable and innovative agricultural sector is one that truly incorporates views of youth and involves them in developing its future.

Although I am a new member in the YPARD community, I have been involved in most of the YPARD related activities, although as an officer working with Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN).

We have been instrumental in sharing knowledge with farmers through organizing open learning days, exchange visits, outreach events, video documentations, and articles aimed at farmers and pastoralists.

My passion in agricultural research for development has attracted my interest in attending the third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD3) in Johannesburg, South Africa in April 5-8, 2016.

I believe GCARD3 will provide me with an opportunity to contribute towards a clear understanding of how to achieve sustainable agricultural development in which “no one is left behind.”

The theme for GCARD3 “No one Left Behind: Agri-food Innovation and Research for a Sustainable World” has captured my attention, as I am sure it will address major constraints that affect agricultural innovation on the lives of rural smallholder farmers.

I am eager to be part of the stakeholders that will ensure that we make agri-food research, and innovation systems stronger, more effective, and more sustainable.

Attending GCARD3 will provide me with a greater capacity to generate, share, and make use of agricultural knowledge after the conference. In cognizance of the fact that youths are the future of the agriculture sector, I plan to continue highlighting the role of youths in ensuring that there is food security for future generations after GCARD3.

Sustaining the business of farming, and ensuring better rural futures are two key GCARD3 themes that I am passionate about and have been involved in for three years.  Many youth have been joining farming because of trainings, reading and consulting the various articles that I post on the Laikipia Rural Voices blog. They have been able to learn from what their peers are doing, as well as gathering information about different crops and farming practices.

I have been blogging on agriculture, particularly on successes and issues faced by the youth engaged in agriculture, highlighting the role and importance of family farming as well as issues pertaining to climate change, environment conservation, and natural resource management.

My work as a blogger enabled ALIN through Laikipia Rural Voices blog to emerge the best blog in the East Africa region for the Institutional category of Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloCo Awards).

The award enabled me to represent ALIN at the Fin4Ag Conference: revolutionising finance for agri-value chains that had brought together decision makers from both public and private sectors with an aim of building a modern and high performing agricultural financing system.

Prior and during the conference, I volunteered as a social reporter and contributed to the writing of eight articles that were shared on the CTA blog.

I also contributed to the remote social reporting for Caribbean-Pacific Agri-Food Forum organized from 31 October to 6 November 2015 in Bridgetown, Barbados. Reporting on the event enabled me to learn how an agribusiness approach can drive rural development in small island states.

I believe that GCARD3 will align international research priorities with the needs of rural smallholder farmers. I intend to continue disseminating information on farmers own innovations to ensure a wider outreach and ensure that they access research knowledge for development.

My name is Bob Aston, 29 year old Kenyan working as an ICT Trainer and Community Facilitator with Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN). I am based at ALIN-Ng’arua Maarifa Centre in Sipili, Laikipia West Sub County, Kenya. I have studied Information Technology although I have a strong interest in agricultural development and working with rural communities in arid parts of Kenya.

This blog post is part of the GCARD3 Youth blogpost applications. The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.