It all started off as a challenge for a young group of social media enthusiasts that wanted to give a voice to young professionals in agricultural research for development (ARD) at the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2012). From all walks of life, young spirited people have gathered between October 25th and November 2nd 2012 in Punta... More

The Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2012) brought together all groups of stakeholders: from researchers to donors such as the FAO, EC or IFAD, to farmers organizations or the private sector. The surprise at the conference co-organized by GFAR and the CGIAR Consortium was the recognition of the role that young professionals play in AR4D. For the... More

Setting the scene Between 16 and 20 Young people present flesh&bones at GCARD2 YPARD pre-event session. Some of them leave shortly to pop-up in other pre-event sessions related to their field of expertise or regional activities. Many of them are also GCARD2 Social reporting trainees. Laptop in hands, they replace the traditional note-taking to tweeting! So, to this bunch of YPs,... More

“You will be surprised” is the logo written on the t-shirts of the bunch of youngsters at the GCARD2 pre-conference session of YPARD, which stands for Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development. The leaders of the movement have reason to say so. Since its creation in 2006, YPARD has been acting as a platform for knowledge sharing for young... More

“Agriculture is an ageing and undervalued profession in many countries and special attention must be given to encouraging young people into careers in all aspects of AR4D...It is important that young people themselves help express what changes are needed in agricultural education and incentives to make careers more attractive and valued and better recognize the range of roles now required in... More

Last week I was representing the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to give the Inaugural lecture on ‘Animal production systems and markets in developing countries’ at INP Toulouse Purpan’s Eurama MSc in European Animal Management. Indeed, I have recently joined the Changing demand and market institutions Team at ILRI. I am particularly pleased that my second mission for ILRI was so... More

The state of "Foresight" Foresight (ability to explore/anticipate and plan the future) is considered essential for understanding future agricultural and rural development contexts and changes around the world, and for driving the research and innovation required to meet these needs.  An inventory of forward looking anticipatory works was conducted earlier this year by GFAR, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research. A... More

It has been a long journey since we started preparing Youth involvement into GCARD2 (the 2nd Global Conference for Agricultural Research for Development). There is still a long way to go : GCARD2 being a huge event and hopefully the starting point of new exciting projects. Here is a small brief on the distance run so far, and the up-coming GCARD2... More

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is - in short - a network of 29 universities in eastern and southern Africa working with other partners, to enhance high education quality and impact in the field of agriculture. YPARD was invited at the 3rd RUFORUM Biennial Conference, last September, 24-28, 2012, in Entebbe, Uganda. The objective of this... More

The 3rd RUFORUM Biennial Conference was held, last September, 24-28, 2012, in Entebbe, Uganda. The objective of this meeting was to exchange findings and experiences, and indentify lessons learned in order to improve performance of the agricultural sector. Discussions turned around strengthening Science and Technology capacity in Africa, strengthening value chains and innovation platform, and engaging African Youth in Rural Transformation.... More

The 3rd RUFORUM Biennial Conference was held, last September, 24-28, 2012, in Entebbe, Uganda. The objective of this meeting was to exchange findings and experiences, and indentify lessons learned in order to improve universities performance for agricultural development. Mary Ebukalin was invited to share her experience and insight, as an end-user, on the impact of higher education on agricultural development. Mary... More

A platform for the youth to emerge as leaders in the direction of green economy, the five-day Asia Pacific Graduates´ Youth Forum on Green Economy successfully concluded on 29 September 2012, in Kathmandu, Nepal, where young graduates from 15 different countries and more than 40 participants were gathered together. This meeting was fruitful to give elicit notion to participation of regional youth... More

September 2012 welcomed 2 new YPARD country representatives in Europe!  Myriam Perez Dumoulin is our new YPARD France representative !  After a short mission in summer 2011 where she performed an employability assignment commissioned by the AgrisMundus master of sciences Secretariat, she has now returned to Montpellier SupAgro to another exciting project in contact with foreign students of agricultural engineering. Myriam... More

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... More

Last week, five days long session on “Asia Pacific Graduates’ Youth Forum on Green Economy, 25-29 September, 2012” were held where 40 participants from 15 countries with diverse background were gathered together in Kathmandu, capital city of Nepal to emerge as leaders in the direction of green economy. In the third day of session, we got chance to meet with Mr.... More

Dear YPARDians,  As food prices soar and, according to the World Population Prospects that the UN published in 2010, we will be 9.3 billion souls living on earth by 2050 (10.1 billion by the end of the century), it is time to set out on a journey to find the best solutions in order to ensure GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY.  At this... More

  Getting Youth involved at the GCARD2! Have you ever heard about the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2) to be held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, 29 October – 1 November 2012? The GCARD 2 will focus on the ways to implement the tasks identified in the GCARD RoadMap for enhancing agricultural research for development, with... More

“The conference "New skills for a European Bioeconomy" hosted by the European Commission in Brussels on 20-21 November 2012 will bring together bioeconomy stakeholders at the European, national and regional level and also those active in the education and training sectors to discuss the role of skills development in driving and facilitating the transition towards a bioeconomy and seizing the employment... More

Agriculture is important to the development of any nation, Nepal being no exception, based on small family farms that are mainly subsistence oriented and yet not capable of feeding the people and facilitating economic development of the country. Although, an agricultural product primarily comprises food grain with paddy being the most pervasively cultivated crop however, the food self sufficiency for farming... More

The Sixth Meeting of the Forum for the Americas on Agricultural Research and Technology Development (FORAGRO), which took place on 21-23 August 2012 in Lima, Peru, gathered a diverse group of participants and lecturers: agriculture ministers, directors of INIAs, directors of international research centers, university rectors and lecturers, senior researchers, representatives of the so-called Procis, leaders of producer groups, private sector... More