“Young people, whether they live in Italy, the United States, Thailand, Guatemala, or Togo, do not grow up wanting to be farmers” Eating Planet 2012, BCFN Barilla Center, WorldWatch Institute The oldest profession, and arguably, the most necessary to support the human population, appears to be slowly dying out. The average age of farmers has been increasing across the world, reaching close... More

“The Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) has been created to promote effective, targeted investment and build partnership, capacities and mutual accountabilities at all levels of the agricultural system so as to ensure that today’s agricultural research will meet the needs of the resource-poor end user.” As history, GCARD1 was held in March 2010 (France) which focused on Enhancing... More

Greetings from Nigeria where agriculture is beginning to get attention in high quarters; thanks to the fall in oil prices and discovery and exploration of crude oil in other nations. I am hopeful that the agricultural era will rise again but this time it must have to be by the youths and with little or no insecticide. We should learn from... More

Agriculture is our business and nobody should be left. This peers with this year GCARD’s theme. Farmers, consumers, politicians, scientists, young persons, we are all concerned by agriculture. The Madiba’s country, the rainbow nation invites us next April for the 3rd GCARD Conference in the capital city of Johannesburg under the theme: “No One Left Behind: Agri-food Innovation and Research for a Sustainable World”.... More

Seems like in south Africa, the one and only rainbow nation in Africa, hosting events has turned to be a routine for this great intra-cultural diversified country. We heard about the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA Africa)[1] hosted in Dec 2015 and shall here about the SA Agri Summit in Sept 2016[2] . But now and in the hearts... More

Hear ye! Hear ye! The youth in agriculture train is moving and we shall not be left behind! Youth are becoming more and more aware of the need for dialogue on agriculture and global development and we are excited to join in these conversations. The Third Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD3) is being held from 05-08 April 2016... More

Agriculture is Uganda’s biggest employing sector, with over 70% of Ugandans engaged in the sector. The sector contributes over 25% to the total gross domestic product (GDP). However, the biggest percentage of those engaged in the sector are elderly men and women, whose production capacity and energy cannot sustain the sector. The energetic and Uganda’s largest population composition, the Youth have... More

Africa is said to be having a unique population profile, with 44% of its population under the age 15 in 2006; making sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the youngest region of the world. Today, two out of three inhabitants of SSA are under 25 years of age. SSA is home to over 200 million young people, who are employed primarily in agriculture, where... More

I have found social media tools especially helpful for promoting any type of organisation. They enable me to schedule my posts. Let's all start using #YPARD to put up posts both on Twitter and Facebook. When there is no internet service available, then schedule it for posting at times when we would not be available. It saves our time and money.... More

Waka Waka (This time for Africa) is a song popularized by Shakira. This song was used as the theme song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It was a huge, global event as football fans from around the world descended on South Africa to witness excellence on the field. Another global event is coming to the rainbow nation this April. The GCARD3 is... More

 Life is an uncertain battle. Whether you win or lose depends on how you are able to manage your own endurance, perseverance, determination and passion as well as your history and mystery. As Young Professionals, we all have stories to tell; the tragedies and victories of yesterdays which have made us who and what we are today.  My story may not... More

There is huge demand of the Nepalese coffee but the production is not meeting the demand. More often than not, when talking about the coffee people talk about the instant coffee. This increase in the demand of coffee could be as a result of changes in food habits. In the fiscal year 2013-14 the Nepalese coffee imports increased from Nrs. 31.73... More

                    Youth and agriculture: What’s new? Over the past years, many of us – individuals and organisations, have been advocating for the active engagement of African youth in agriculture. Indeed, with an ageing farming population and the high unemployment rate among youth, agriculture, being the main economic sector of most countries in... More

YPARD Team officially launches YPARD during GFAR Triennal meeting, in New Delhi, 2006 "We must be the change we wish to see". These are the infamous words of Mahathma Gandhi. The same words can be used to describe the ten year journey for YPARD. Ten years is a long time; how did it all start? I remember it so well.  It... More

The launch of the CAP Cook Book preview marks the start of a new Groupe de Bruges’ project to communicate the CAP 2014-2020 to the general public in a ‘digestible’ way. Seven local events will be held in March and April 2016 on seven farms across the European Union. Each event will host a one day programme of farm tours, cookery... More

“#Youth should be more vocal about #AsianIrrigation Issues to give stakeholders a stronger sense of urgency. They need to know we are involved.” –Asian Youth Initiative More than 100 stakeholders including policy-makers, Non-Government Organizations (NGO), research institutions, young professionals, young farmers and youth representatives from different parts of the Asia converged from January 20-22, 2016 at the Asian Development Bank (ADB)... More

The main concern remains that the average age of the farmers in the Caribbean is above 45 years and many are actually over 60 years (Greene 2010).  In a study entitled Youth in Agriculture- Challenges and Opportunities, the average age of farmers in the Caribbean is 55 years and the life expectancy in the region averages about 65 to 70 years... More

There is a current wave of issues concerning how to engage the youth in Agriculture and this is a major agricultural development agenda. It is evident that Ghana’s agriculture has an image problem which makes it unattractive to the youth and if am allowed to say,“it isn’t cool’’. The images of farmers most youth have are of an old person wearing... More

Mariola (Spain), Vincent (Uganda) and Simon (the UK) have already started the #YPARD10years festivities - join them! YPARD turned 10 this year. May you have joined YPARD a long time ago, just recently or not yet, YPARD is YOUR international community of young professionals for agricultural development, and its supporters. You are at the centre of its “raison d’être” and the... More

The theme of the event was picked from an event held by FANRPAN a few years back. The idea was to help the Agriculture faculty students see the new directions of agriculture from just farming to agribusiness while placing more emphasis on the comfortable and enjoyable life that youth in agriculture can live and enjoy if they do things right. YPARD... More