YPARD: Pushing the Frontier of Agriculture

By Essel Cobbina, YPARD Europe Intern

YPARD is an international movement for young agricultural professionals, founded sixteen years ago. Since then, YPARD has dedicated to serving as a collaborative global network that enables young professionals to realize their full potential and contribute proactively towards innovative and sustainable agricultural development. Over the years, its foundational principles and motivations have not changed, in fact, they have just gotten stronger! A trail must be blazed, which YPARD has done since 2006.

With a population of continuing growth, and hunger affecting 9.9% of this population, strategies and measures to counteract this situation have been used, but none of them has been fully successful. As a network that has Agricultural Development as one of its main targets, YPARD has been working and will work on showing youth that agriculture is a viable solution to poverty and hunger and contributes to sustainable food systems and economic development. The world needs young people to contribute to agricultural development more than ever and YPARD is there to connect the youth that will make the change..

YPARD believes the next generation of farmers, researchers, entrepreneurs, scientists, industrialists, and extension workers must be empowered and nurtured for humankind to adapt to the impacts of rising temperatures, increased urbanization, and unpredictable weather events on agriculture. YPARD knows that mentorship is essential for capacity building and that young professionals have the necessary skills to succeed! From working with high school students in Nigeria's Young Farmers Club to collaborating and coordinating with farmers' groups in Nepal to implementing the Young Agripreneurs Project (YAP) in Croatia. YPARD is at the forefront of history, expanding agriculture's horizons.

Join this global online and offline communication and discussion platform at https://ypard.net/ and take an active role to enable and empower young agricultural leaders around the world to shape sustainable food systems