EURENSSA stands for European Environmental Sciences Students Association an association that has its roots from a Latvian environmental science student who organized first summer camp in their country. Word spread round about it and since then, summer camps are being held in different countries organized by different students each year with the exception of 2014.  This year’s traditional summer camp, organized... More

Today, we celebrate International Youth Day - a commemoration of young people and their ability to create a better world. YPARD, an organization dedicated to elevating the voice and impact of youth in agriculture, remains a devoted partner towards the fulfilment of the ‘youth-related’ objectives of the global development agenda. Our powerful global network and multi-level (global to local) initiatives help... More

YPARD is delighted to welcome Elcah Barasa on board, as remote Web4Knowledge intern. Elcah Barasa is a young woman from Kenya. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy at the Technical University of Kenya and a Diploma in French at Alliance Francaise in Nairobi. Elcah has great interests in ICT for Development issues, rural development and... More

To ensure healthier livelihoods worldwide – and in the long term -, the young generation needs to fully get their hands and minds into agricultural development now. Being connected through a global collective platform, through which they can realise their full potential and contribute proactively to innovative agricultural development is crucial to boost the active role of young people in agriculture.... More

YPARD is delighted to welcome Emmie Kio as a remote Youth-leader communications champion, to support YPARD Global Coordination Unit’s communications activities. Emmie Kio is an International development practitioner specializing in Agricultural Development, Communications and Social Media. As a seasoned agricultural writer, Emmie helps communicate on Agricultural activities in Kenya and beyond – especially on those activities that are sustainable from an Economic, Environmental... More

  It is important to study small farmers in their traditional based agricultural systems because estimates show that by 2025, three (3) billion people will depend on agriculture production from this category of agriculture (Soleri et al. 2005). Soleri goes further to estimate that the world population will be 9 billion by 2050 and if his estimation is valid then the... More

Behold the impressive muscles of the blue cattle. The chances that you get a blue cattle bull when you order or buy beef in Belgium is extremely high. Bulls - yes, they use bulls and not very often cows - are double muscled: due to a missing gene that normally blocks muscle growth. It's a natural mutation and there has been... More

"The Universe always conspires to help the dreamer", Paulo Coelho.  We all have something we like, hate or love, simply because we all have the potential to feel passionate about something.  Passion is the energy that keeps us going and filled with meaning, happiness and excitement. It's the driving force that makes us feel unique and what pushes us to keep... More

Social and networking events bring to the forefront important personal and professional relationships which are useful to organizations. While some won’t get you anywhere, others could become the source of endless innovation and development. Through those connections that do flourish, young people can be catalysts to solve big issues in their countries.  With this in mind, two events held in Harare,... More

One of my favorite words in the world is ingenuity. It’s my go to definition for people in agriculture who not only solve their problems but do so with a curiousity and a flair that most people do not have.This attitude could be compared to that of an architect or an inventor who takes functionality, visual impact, sustainability and usuability, merging... More

Recently, a group of Chinese young talents in the agriculture field attended a sharing meeting held at FAO headquarters in Rome, where YPARD Global Coordination Unit is based. All these young people are funded by the Ginkgo Fellowship, which is a scholarship program launched by Narada Foundation in China. While Marina Cherbonnier, YPARD web and communications manager hosted the meeting, Bi Jieying,... More

Hurdles of Marginalized Young People Young people are many times marginalized from the global regards and perspectives of the agricultural realm. They are also known as ‘separated youth’, which includes indigenous young people, youth with disabilities and young women. Most of them face several difficulties in having their rights recognized. For instance, they are many times obstructed to get equal education,... More

Hlamalani Ngwenya is an international consultant for GFRAS. She is involved in the “Talent development in agriculture: Growing ambitions for agricultural professionals” initiative that GFRAS is spearheading in collaboration with the International Agri-Food Network, YPARD, FAO, GCHERA, TAP, Nuffield International farming scholars and others.  This coalition serves as a response to the 2013 Committee on World Food Security’s endorsement of its... More

It is yet another opportunity to bring youth voice and lobby for wide engagement in African programs. This time, the opportunity consists of having being nominated as a board member to represent the youth in the African Agribusiness Incubator Network (AAIN). AAIN is an independently driven action network for Incubating incubators through advancing entrepreneurship, networking, science and technologies for job and... More

From 24 to 27 of June, the World Farmers’ Organization held in Milan the general assembly having three main topics to discuss: 1) respond to the nine billions world population with sustainable, equitable and inclusive solutions; 2) smart solutions for facing climate evolution; 3) meeting growing agricultural challenges with innovation solutions. As the Italian representative for YPARD, I was invited to... More

With a population of close to 35m people, a total area of 241,038 square kilometres, and a forest cover of 4.9 million hectares, which represent just around 14.5% of the total area, Uganda is the most deforested country in East Africa. Besides, between 1990 and 2005, it experienced a 15% decrease in forest cover driven by increased land use for agriculture... More

A question asked to primary school children? No, indeed this was something I asked myself when attending a conference “Agricultural Higher Education in the 21st Century.” Deans and professors of international universities were from 15-17 June, 2015 in Zaragoza, Spain to discuss about how to renew agricultural higher education in order to prepare efficient professionals that will face the challenging future... More

AgriYouthNepal announced open blog article contest on topic “ICTs in Nepalese Agriculture” for Nepalese citizens. Today, in Nepal, wireless network connection is available in every district and thanks to globalization, smartphones and internet connection has started being common among the Nepalese farmers too. Realizing the importance of ICT in agriculture, some innovative minds in Nepal have already started exploiting this technological boon... More

There’s a notion in general agricultural diaspora that the small farmers of the world are the majority group of food producers who truly feed the world. I would say this is true to a large extent but others may dismiss this an opinion. Regardless small farmers do make a contribution. They are a majority that is treated like a minority. The... More

In this guest blog post, Madhu Sudhan Ghimire, an agriculture student from Nepal urges for action to be taken to support rural communities and farmers, to avoid a food crisis in the country following the recent earthquake. This post is part of the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) network’s ongoing partnership with Farming First. It was Saturday 25th of April 2015: a normal day when... More