Welcoming YPARD Spain country representative: Víctor Suárez Villanueva.

We are delighted to welcome the new YPARD Spain country representative Víctor Suárez Villanueva.

Victor is a graduate of Agriculture Engineering from the Universidad de León, Spain .During his bachelor studies, he attended two exchange programs (ERASMUS and AMICUS) where he spent one semester at École Superieur d´Agriculture d´Angers, France and one year at the University of Vermont, USA. In addition to that, he has completed the Agris Mundus MSc in Sustainable Agricultural Development, a collaboration course between the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Montpellier-SupAgro France, and did his master´s thesis research at ICRAF Kenya relating to manure management practices with reduced GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions.

From the early age of 14 he became interested in learning new cultures and how they understand agriculture. Ever since then, he has developed a growing interest in this field, which has enabled him to work in various countries. For instance, in 2012 he conducted a research in ornamental plants in the USA at Longwood Gardens, researched on plant breeding for fruit trees at East Malling Research, UK, in 2013, and this past year, he conducted investigations on biofertilizers at the Natural Resource Institute of Universidad de Leon, Spain.

The common point among the activities he carried out has always been the research in agriculture from a sustainable perspective. For this reason, he recently joined the Sustainable Agriculture research group at Universidad de León where he is currently a Ph.D. student with a focus on organic farming practices to control woody pests´ on grapevines.

He believes that research has a tremendous power to change the world for the better and as such, has always wanted to attain a broader public view for new ideas in research. He considers this to be a critical issue in research, where a lot of important research stays hidden from the mass media. YPARD as a network could really broaden the recipients of new discoveries in the field of agriculture, and this is something to take into consideration as YPARD offers a great network to connect with other researchers around the world working on similar topics.

Victor joined YPARD Spain in 2016 and has played a key role in getting people to know the YPARD platform through presentations in various agricultural schools throughout his country. He plans to connect with existing youth organizations in Spain, focusing on agriculture such as ASAJA (Asociación Agraria de Jóvenes Agricultores) to try work together towards a common objective. His main goal will be to enhance the visibility and network for YPARD Spain.

We also take this opportunity to thank the outgoing YPARD Spain representative Mariola Acosta, and look forward to our continued interaction with her as the YPARD Spain communications focal point.

Welcome on board Víctor Suárez Villanueva.

If you are from or based in Spain, and want to get involved in YPARD Spain activities, please contact Victor at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..