YPARD is glad to announce the winner of the Seeing Thoughts contest! YPARD Seeing Thoughts video competition launched in 2012 was an attempt to capture and showcase the voices of youth and their contribution to agriculture for development, whether in research, in production or assisting a community to develop a sustainable livelihood. The contest was coupled with a learning process: the... Continue reading

by André-Daniel Stucki,(Bern University of Applied Sciences School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) Usually it took me about half an hour to make my way from the Institute of Agroecology of the University of BaltI to the “Brigade”, the machinery section of the research Institute “Selectia” on the outskirts of the city. This way always included some traffic with... Continue reading

Urban farming in Kenya has moved beyond just being a poor man's profession. Can it even provide a solution to looming food insecurity? On a stroll through Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, one's eyes are drawn to a myriad of agricultural activities taking place. From a distance, greenhouses seem to sprout from any available piece of land and backyards. And that... Continue reading

The YPARD Steering Committee which was held in Rome February 22nd and 23rd, 2013 was a fruitful event, examining the activities and role of YPARD, strategy and the years to come.  A couple points of note were a new Steering Committee chair and a new name for the coordinator. New Chair YPARD would like to welcome Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu as the new... Continue reading

It was an exciting experience to present during the sixth annual Ugandan fish farmers symposium on January 22nd, 2013. Youths’ participation during the symposium was vibrant. Some youths presented their innovations while others presented on behalf of their organisations. One of the aquaculture stakeholders at the symposium commended youth contributions saying that the youth of this generation presented a more practical... Continue reading

YPARD welcomes Olawale Ojo as the New YPARD Representative for Nigeria. You most probably know Olawale already, through YPARD Community Blog and Social Media, where he has been very active. Olawale was one of our “YP of the Month” last year, sharing his success story. He also belonged to the social reporters team at GCARD2; learn more about his experience. Olawale... Continue reading

YPARD is welcoming OBERT MATHIVHA as YPARD South Africa representative. Obert Mathivha grew up in rural areas of South Africa where agricultural activities became part of his upbringing and constituted about 90 percent of his household survival and income. Today, Obert is a legal and diplomatic graduate from the University of Pretoria while his  inherent passion for agriculture made him to... Continue reading

Agriculture in Nepal is still of subsistence but with the right policies and supportive investments at local, regional and national levels, agriculture offers new opportunities to move out of poverty. On the above background, the government of Nepal with the grant assistance ($18 million among total budget of $24.1 million USD) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has implemented Commercial Agriculture... Continue reading

Pan African Youth Conference on Learning for Sustainability was held at Silver Springs Hotel, in Nairobi, Kenya on January 30 to 31, 2013 The Conference brought together ‘young’ minds involved in sustainable development (SD) and green economy (GE) throughout Africa. The Conference theme was “Empowering Youths for Sustainable Development”. It was organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) programme... Continue reading

’’It finally came true’’, these were the words I said to myself as the activities of the day ended. Over the past months myself and another YPARD member in Kogi State Nigeria:  Apeh Omede who happens to also be a staff at  Kogi State University in the Department of Animal Production, had planned a YPARD Awareness with the support of YPARD... Continue reading

Le Burkina Faso est un pays très majoritairement agricole. Le secteur primaire, constitué par l'agriculture et l'élevage emploie presque toute la population rurale et une partie importante de la population urbaine. Entre 80 et 85% des Burkinabè travaillent dans le secteur primaire. Mais le faible rendement agricole, les méthodes archaïques et les aléas climatiques rendent cette partie de la population pauvre... Continue reading

I was invited to contribute through a guest commentary for the Chicago Council’s Global Food for Thought Blog on the importance of engaging/investing in youth in agriculture sector to alleviate hunger and poverty, given my experiences with YPARD.  The Global Food for Thought blog indeed provides a platform for expert commentary on international agriculture and food issues. This year, the Council... Continue reading

Farmland area in Iran is 11-13 million ha in which most of it can be classified as traditional farming systems which smallholder farmers are involved in for subsistence agriculture. Since many farmers in their small farms and gardens never use agrochemicals and use sustainable approaches for crop production during land preparation, crop nutrition, soil fertility as well as pest, disease and... Continue reading

Travel report from the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) 2013by Martina Graf, Coordinator YPARD Europe Berlin, minus 12 Celsius degree outside, when I dive into the crowd of ministers, students, NGO representatives, groups of delegates, investors, ambassadors from governments and lobbyists. They come together in the frame of “Die Grüne Woche”, which is the world's biggest fair for food,... Continue reading

I remember that moment I read Tega’s letter of motivation for YPARD Social Media’s internship position. It smelled creativity, dynamism, smartness and ambition. Tega finished his internship as the New Year 2013 was starting. He contributed to a significant increase of membership on YPARD Pages on social media: Facebook ( page and groupe), Twitter and Linkedin. Tega brought a number of... Continue reading

Ado Woldu (Aderajew) is our new YPARD Ethiopia National Representative. Aderajew Woldu is a graduate in Rural Development (B.Sc) from Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, since 2008. He was employed that same year at Haramaya University as a graduate assistant in the department of Rural Development & Agricultural Extension (RDAE) and carried on as an assistant lecturer, till the end of 2010.... Continue reading

Sridhar Gutam is our new YPARD India National Representative. Sridhar Gutam after earning a Ph.D. (Plant Physiology) from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, had joined Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 2004. He is currently working as a Senior Scientist (Plant Physiology) at Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH), Lucknow. His... Continue reading

“Iwe kiko lai si oko ati ada ko i pe o ko i pe o, ise agbe ni ise ile wa eni kosise ama jale” “Formal education without cutlass and hoe is not complete because farming is our country’s major trademark, and he that does not work, will steal”. I was taught this nursery rhyme while in the elementary school. The... Continue reading

I never gave so much attention to the cocoa industry during all my studies of opportunities for youth in agribusiness. Majorly, I was reluctant because i just had this uneasy feeling about the waiting period of 3 to 5 years before making profit and the fact that it requires some reasonable amount of volume in terms of quantity and quality. In... Continue reading

For the past year, one of the Web 2.0 tools I am using a lot for information search and dissemination is Twitter. There are of course other tools to collaborate, access information and to connect with people/organisations that have same interests as me (See one of my previous posts on Web 2.0 tools: Some practical examples), but presently I find Twitter... Continue reading