Welcoming YPARD Switzerland representative!

September 2012 welcomed 2 new YPARD country representatives in Europe! 

Johanna Gysin is our new YPARD Switzerland representative ! 

You bet Johanna is passionate about agriculture and Asia ! Johanna is currently enrolled in a part time master studies at the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) in Zollikofen, Switzerland, with a major in Management of Value Chains. Her Master Thesis topic is based on a field work in Mongolia focusing on "Assessment of the potential of adding value through processing and labelling of cashmere and yak wool from Mongolian herders."

Meanwhile, Johanna works part time as assistant at the department of International Agriculture at HAFL. She mainly supports a project work on value chains in Mongolia, breeding trials, and she prepares lectures, tutors, plans and conducts surveys. She stayed in total 3 months in Mongolia for project planning support and setting up and implementation of a survey.

She previously passed a Bachelor in International Agriculture and focused her thesis on: "Control of Phytophthora palmivora in organic cocoa in Southern Vietnam". She had then a practical training for five months in the research part of the Eco-Cocoa Program of the Swiss NGO Helvetas in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She made trials on the biological treatment of Phytophthora palmivora on organic cocoa and survey among farmers. During her pre-study training on a Swiss dairy farm she experienced the daily work of a farmer. She was involved in all the routine tasks like milking, broiler production, fruit production and marketing.
 

Getting involved with YPARD!

After getting to know YPARD through a contact at HAFL, Johanna took the initiative to start a YPARD Switzerland Facebook group some month ago. "I would like to spread word about YPARD and make this platform more known in Switzerland! A starting point would therefore be to present YPARD to the different Swiss and international Research organizations (like SFIAR and EFARD) but also to the agricultural faculties in Switzerland like the HAFL, ETH, the CDE, HESSO etc. Therefore a kickoff event for YPARD Switzerland in form of a YPARD café could be an interesting option." she says. 

Johanna would also like to collect most recent trends and activities in Swiss Agricultural research by young people in Switzerland and present these in international YPARD meetings and talk about it in YPARD forums.

We thank Johanna for her enthusiasm and energy during these last months and we are looking forward to starting this new adventure together. Welcome YPARD Switzerland!

Are you based in Switzerland? Do you want to get involved in National or Local activities in Switzerland? Contact Johanna.

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Learn about Myriam, our new YPARD France representative!