The mission of Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) is to serve as a global platform through which young professionals can express their ideas and realize their full potential towards a dynamic agricultural research for development. Every four years, YPARD undertakes a review to examine the evolutions in the network and provide suggestions for where further efforts should be concentrated. In... More

Hectic yet reflective! The pilot GFAR-YPARD Young Agripreneur Project is coming to an end and in these posts, the six young agri-preneurs are pondering on their professional and personal journeys over the past twelve months. In April 2016, they all gathered in Johannesburg, where they thrilled the audiences at GCARD3 with their enthusiasm, drive and energy in describing their YAP projects. Now they are... More

Hectic yet reflective! The pilot GFAR-YPARD Young Agripreneur Project is coming to an end and in these posts, the six young agri-preneurs are pondering on their professional and personal journeys over the past twelve months. In April 2016, they all gathered in Johannesburg, where they thrilled the audiences at GCARD3 with their enthusiasm, drive and energy in describing their YAP projects. Now they are... More

The Sundarbans is the largest single mangrove forest in the world, which covers approximately forty percent of the total forest in Bangladesh and is listed as one of the World Heritage and Ramsar site. Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) and Japan Environmental Education Forum (JEEF) have been trying to promote Sundarbans Mangrove Biodiversity Education Program in Bangladesh since 2013 among the... More

Nutrition and food security coupled with the growing global concern for sustainable agriculture has become the global challenge. To attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), malnutrition is thought to be the major hindrance. However, Bangladesh is trying to put priority into action on food and nutritional security and government and other NGOs and private organizations have through projects tried to address... More

Youth unemployment has become the focus of most governments and development partners due to its adverse effect on migration, security and development. The agricultural sector with its wide range of activities offers a great opportunity for youth employment when well explored. Gathering information from the critical stakeholders of the framework thus the youth is a crucial element in tapping the opportunity... More

First time in Europe Mentally I was going to make the best out of everything, no matter what the outcome. From leaving my front door in Kathmandu, Nepal, it took me two days to reach my final destination – Leuven, Belgium. When I finally got there the main thought on my mind, repeating like a broken record was, “besides having the... More

Hectic yet reflective! The pilot GFAR-YPARD Young Agripreneur Project is coming to an end and in these posts, the six young agri-preneurs are pondering on their professional and personal journeys over the past twelve months. In April 2016, they all gathered in Johannesburg, where they thrilled the audiences at GCARD3 with their enthusiasm, drive and energy in describing their YAP projects.... More

The sustainability of agriculture and food production relies on young people remaining in rural areas and engaging in agriculture, in particular in challenging areas like drylands and mountain areas, and in countries of high youth migration like Morocco. However, the lack of engagement of youth in agriculture, compounded with a declining interest among young professionals in pursuing agriculture-related careers has resulted... More

Hectic yet reflective! The pilot GFAR-YPARD Young Agripreneur Project is coming to an end and in these posts, the six young agri-preneurs are pondering on their professional and personal journeys over the past twelve months. In April 2016, they all gathered in Johannesburg, where they thrilled the audiences at GCARD3 with their enthusiasm, drive and energy in describing their YAP projects. Now they are... More

It was an educative and interesting discussion  when thought leaders on agriculture  from the National Agricultural and Research Systems of West, Central and North African countries, ministries of agriculture, NGO’s farmer organization, private sector and  CGIAR  gathered on the 9th of May 2017 in the conference room of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)’s secretariat in Accra, Ghana This was the... More

A week ago, I was fortunate to speak at the latest Brussels Rural Development Briefings (Briefing number 49)* that took place at the ACP secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. The briefing focused on “Youth in Agribusiness: shaping the future of agriculture”. One of the key takeaways I took from the conference was that we cannot force young people to go into agriculture. We... More

Enthusiastic young people started arriving early on Friday, May 26 and were served tasty coffee and organic food as we gathered in the friendly ambience that promises an explosion of innovative ideas from young talents ready to answer the question; How to feed 9 billion people by 2050? Founder and CEO of TFF Christine Gould opened the fifth edition of TFF with... More

Francesca Allievi - the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) Alumni group Operative President shares with us her thoughts, ideas and perspective on issues related to youth, agriculture and the agri-food sector through an interview conducted by Libuska Valesova - the YPARD Europe Coordinator. Francesca is an experienced, educated and active agricultural professional who believes in the value of food... More

Africa has the youngest population in the world with over 92% of the youth represented among the extremely poor (ILO, 2015a). The youth population is expected to grow at an exponentially high rate, thus bringing forth the need to create between ten to twelve million new jobs in Africa per year until 2035 to absorb the new labour market entrants (UN,... More

A year has passed since the start of YAP – a personal and professional development project aimed to assist young agripreneurs in establishing their own sustainable agricultural businesses. It has been a year of continuous coaching, mentoring and other types of support from GFAR and YPARD, on the road to successful agripreneurship. When I was selected as a YAP finalist, I had vision and courage but I... More

I am motivated to share my story with you all because as they say, “Experience is the best teacher”. Some of my friends, family and community members did not understand the motive behind my pursuit of agriculture as a profession. They did not expect that decision from me. Instead they wanted me to pursue the social sciences or a law degree... More

The Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition Foundation (BCFN Foundation) is a private non-profit apolitical institution, working as a multidisciplinary and independent think tank. The foundation has a strong focus on determining the effect of economic, scientific, social and environmental factors on food. The foundation also offers valuable scientific content that inform and help people to make conscious daily choices about... More

This year’s World Wildlife Day celebrates the theme ‘Listen to the Young Voices’. Its message is to mobilize the positive energy of the planet’s youth to call attention to the threats to wildlife. These include over-exploitation poaching or illicit trafficking. Engaging ‘Youth as agents of change’ to improve the world for our wildlife is a powerful message. We see many examples of the positive... More

Promotion of agriculture among the youth, both online and offline, remains a key focus at YPARD. 2016 was no exception especially given that YPARD was celebrating its 10 years anniversary. As a network, we not only celebrated our 10 years journey but went ahead to continue fulfilling our mandate of ensuring that young professionals realize their full potential and contribute proactively towards... More