Africa is a home to big and potential agicultural lands that would be enough to feed all the hungry in the continent. But a huge challenge in adoption to technologies has hindered this giant to discover the potential it has to feed its people. It amazing how small and young countries like Israel has made it possible to feed its people... Continue reading

  In the context of the upcoming United Nation's Conference on Sustainable Development (also known as Rio+20), people over the world are sharing their thoughts and opinions on how they see their future, so that their voice is heard at the conference from 20-22 June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is being done through various methods: essay contests, blogs,... Continue reading

Most of you know YPARD as an international platform through which  young professionals are able to express their ideas and realise their full potential towards a dynamic ARD. You might not know about all of the other activities that are going on worldwide, at local, national, regional and global levels. You can now find the YPARD 2011 activity report in the... Continue reading

YPARD is welcoming three interns to support information services through ypard.net, increase YPARD visibility and community interaction on Social Networks, and strengthen the reach of YPARD in three languages: English, Spanish and French. YPARD is eager to get more young people from all over the world involved in youth and agricultural development, and this will enable us to provide enhanced support... Continue reading

YPARD is welcoming three new country representatives in Africa: in Malawi, Mali and Sierra Leone. Get to know more about them and liaise with them to get involved in national and local initiatives with YPARD! Maxwell Mkondiwa, in Malawi Maxwell Mkondiwa is the YPARD Malawi representative. He is a 22 years old research fellow (intern) at the Centre for Agricultural Research... Continue reading

Maxwell Mkondiwa Farmer experimentation and field school using System of Rice Intensification: Youths involved in taking a video to showcase in another area (Cho Moi District, Bac Kan Province, Vietnam). A community or village is normally treated as a unified unit consisting of various individuals who share various common resources and institutions. Practitioners have indeed implemented development projects in this so... Continue reading

AT AKURE, NIGERIA. THE ENTERPRENEUR UNDER 25 (EU-25) FORUM THEME: AGRIC-BUSINESS On April 29 2012, fifteen (15) young men and women came together to discuss on the future of agriculture and agric-business in Nigeria. The EU-25 is a monthly entrepreneur forum which is done over lunch where entrepreneurs under the age of 25 come together to discuss on how effectively create... Continue reading

Pouvez-vous nous présenter l'organisation Ypard? YPARD est un réseau de jeunes professionnels de moins de 40 ans qui travaillent dans la recherche agricole pour le développement dans différentes régions du monde. Nous cherchons à engager davantage les jeunes actifs vers des carrières touchant tous les aspects du secteur agricole.  Et il est important que les jeunes eux-mêmes soient sollicités pour qu’ils... Continue reading

Youth and Agriculture: Fresh Approach for a New Paradigm The CGIAR Science Forum 2011 held from 17th-19th October  2011 in Beijing, China under the theme “The Agriculture-Environment Nexus “ was organized by the Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) of the CGIAR in cooperation  with  the Consortium  Board  of  the  CGIAR,  the  Global  Forum  on Agricultural  Research  (GFAR)  and the Chinese... Continue reading

by Maxwell Mkondiwa, reporting from the 6th Community Based Adaptation Conference in Vietnam It is now recognized worldwide that agricultural and farming systems need to be improved beyond their capacities if the human race is to avert the catastrophe that may result as population growth exceeds food production. Catastrophe seem likely when you consider the billions of people who will be food insecure... Continue reading

A group of young graduates in Kenya have introduced a mobile-phone enabled technology which will help farmers in rural Africa to link up with crop researchers, meteorological departments and veterinary scientists to better their farm yields. Calvins Okello, a science graduate from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and a colleague, Gordon Owiti, have developed the new technology... Continue reading

YPARD China will hold YPARD China launching conference in Beijing, in partnership with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), in late May 2012. A pre-survey has been conducted in order to identify Chinese YPs’ interests in YPARD website YPs’ role in Modern Agriculture Approaches to promote young people to be involved in agricultural activities Means to accelerate the communication among China... Continue reading

Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences hosted a Young Professionals' Science Forum to discuss the basic qualities for a YP, the atmosphere for a better research, the system for improvement of YP's, on 26th April, in Beijing, China. Jieying Bi, YPARD China Representative was invited to share her experiences in FAO, GFAR and YPARD. YPARD China won great success from the promotion... Continue reading

The University of Ghana recently hosted over 100 agricultural stakeholders from around the world to discuss the role of young people in farming and food. The conference which ran from 19th to 21 March was dubbed Young People, Farming and food and organized by Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) an independent learning alliance of academic researchers and practitioners involved in African agriculture.... Continue reading

Hunger v/s Food wastage Every day, we hear in the news that people in different parts of the world are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Nearly one billion people in the world go  to sleep hungry each night since they do not have anything to feed themselves due to several reasons (economic & food crisis, increase in food prices, over-exploitation of the... Continue reading

Although Kenyan youths make up over 75 per cent of the country's population, farming is not considered an attractive option. This mentality has been entrenched in the education system that traditionally dooms the academically challenged to farming, otherwise known as the 'poor man's profession'. As a result, according to Kenya's agricultural ministry, the average age of a Kenyan farmer is 55.... Continue reading

The YPARD coordinator, regional coordinator, and representatives for some Asian regions met in India in March, 2012 to formalise some of the activities for the region.  Some of the ideas that came out were as follows: Activities Learning Needs Assessment Working with different stakeholder groups to identify their capacity development needs.  These should be country specific (and more so, if possible).  This... Continue reading

Machteld Schoolenberg has just ended 6 months of internship with YPARD. She was working 8 hours a week as Web4knowledge intern, remotely, from the Netherlands. She dealt with information management on the YPARD website and social media. Machteld will be particularly missed for her excellent communication skills and strong ability to familiarize herself with the different ICTs she had to use.... Continue reading

This success story is based on the presentation made at the Southern Africa Telecentre Network and Panos Institute of Southern Africa Media Forum on the Role of ICTs in Agricultural Development . The success story is based on Panos experiences in implementing radio/ICT initiative in Zambia in particular Kasempa and Itezhi Tezhi districts under a programme supported by Common Market for... Continue reading

The critical challenge in African countries and Zambia in particular is access to information resources and services that add value to the lives of people. Most of the potential of rural African resources and its people still remain untapped. Thus among others, we face several challenges. To contribute to the development of ICTs in southern Africa, Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET... Continue reading