Are you a young person passionate about tackling global land management issues? Are you interested in learning about international efforts to stop deforestation? A coalition of international organizations, YPARD included, is inviting you to join other young leaders in Rome to build capacity and act together collectively. We're crossing sectors, land boundaries, and cultures to harmonize youth contributions towards sustainable forests. Join... Continue reading

Palasungan is a community of Matigsalog Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao particularly in Bukidnon. Matigsalog leaders requested support in uplifting their lives through improving their farms. They have vast of ancestral land which could be develop to a productive land and in the future for the sustainability of their next generations. As response my team facilitated 3 days activity which includes workshop on their... Continue reading

The Ararat valley, Armenia’s biggest agricultural center and breadbasket is currently facing the serious issue of salinization of arable lands. Extensive use of artesian water for fisheries in Ararat valley have caused a high level of salinization of lands. Currently, 25% of land in Armenia is under the threat of desertification. Armenia, a country known for its high-quality groundwater resources, has... Continue reading

To start agricultural production you need to have available resources: land, machines, equipment, seeds….For one who doesn't  have any starting point, like inheriting our parent's farm,  to begin agricultural production can be very difficult. Despite that, youth unemployment in rural as well as in urban areas is growing. Many young people are moving from villages to cities and those who stay... Continue reading

It’s quite a task/responsibility to write a story about this producer, as it’s a story about business lead by values and not by the profits, it’s the story about a person, who had the courage to leave his developed and organized country, crossed the ocean to deliver a bit of value to the world. Volker Ribniger bought land and started his... Continue reading

On a cold winter evening in order to bring some sun into my heart, I covered myself with a warm plaid and started looking at the photos from my trip to Costa Rica that I made in September this year with YES programme (see the description in my first blog on this topic here) Looking at the pictures I asked myself,... Continue reading

You’ve dreamt of becoming a successful farmer, and you’re prepared to venture into the ever-changing world of farming business.  All that is left is to trade in your current job or day-to-day engagements for farming as a profession. Venturing into farming is not an easy decision to make. Any experienced farmer will tell you that pursuing farming requires learning some critical... Continue reading

In my years of working with youth and agriculture, the landscape has changed considerably. When I first began in 2010, youth as rarely a topic for discussion, we lobbied for young people as part of delegations, part of discussions and as a topic. Every once in a while, we secured an ill-attended side event.  But it remained ‘novel’ and never did... Continue reading

On the 10th and 11th December 2017, YPARD-Egypt participated in a workshop co-organized by the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East & North Africa (AARINENA) and the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) in Hammamet, Tunisia, under the theme “Transforming AARINENA’s Capacity as a Multi-Stakeholder Futuristic Regional Forum for Research and Innovation for Development Tunisia”.  The workshop brought... Continue reading

As a phrase, ‘data is the new oil’ becomes more and more popular, I often wondered about the impact of data governance and sharing practices in agriculture.  With the growing concern of people on big data, open data access and workshops about data sharing and data revolutions on farming, my wonder was obvious. I wished to know more about the ways... Continue reading

We are delighted to welcome the new YPARD Moldova representative Cristina Conea. Cristina is currently undertaking her MSc studies at Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences (FTZ) in Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS) in Prague, Czech Republic where she is focused on International Development and Agricultural Economics. Cristina is currently preparing her Master Thesis on “Assessment of factors influencing the improvement of... Continue reading

Young farmers’ problems seem to be pretty much the same in every part of the world: market, land, financing, information about production techniques and their contributions to agriculture exactly the same: making food producing sustainable, natural environmental safer and agriculture modern and easy. In Serbia, many young farmers start their own agricultural production without any help from government, associations or others.... Continue reading

Whether you are a seasoned gardening veteran or a beginning hobbyist, you probably have a few favorite tools for use in your vegetable garden to help make propagating, and cultivating, your plants easier. There is a multitude of tools widely available for use, but most people stick to a few tried and true resources rather than branch out to something new. However,... Continue reading

As a Ph.D. student working on the topic of youth in agribusiness in Africa, I am ever eager to meet more professionals and passionate people moved by the same themes of my research. So on a rainy day in November I made it to KIT’s monumental building in East Amsterdam for the ‘Youth in agriculture meet & greet’, an event organized... Continue reading

As Heraclitus once said ‘Change is the only constant in life’. The World is changing constantly and together with it challenges, population, problems, and solutions are also changing. Horticulture is no exception, it is under constant pressure from climate change, population growth and environmental issues. Questions such as: Would our current species survive the impact of changing climate and humans? Will... Continue reading

Through the MasterCard Foundation’s Young Africa Works (YAW) Summit held in Kigali in the month of February 2017, Bamlaku Asmare- a young Ethiopian agripreneur with the dream of excelling at apiculture was introduced to his mentor, Azage Tegegne. Azage is the Project Manager of the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)... Continue reading

It started early this year with pre-summit webinars that I was connected to a dynamic network of young professionals in Agriculture from across Africa. Meeting YPARD staff and fellow YAW2017 delegates online was very exciting and I was fortunate to not have missed any webinar. From my point of view, it was that time that I got prepared for the summit and I... Continue reading

I have turned 40 recently. No cause for alarm: it all went well. Nevertheless, within the YPARD community, I have instantly changed from being a “young” professional to becoming an “old” one. Furthermore, I have also just changed job: after seventeen years working on agricultural policies and development at national and international levels, I am now in charge of a team... Continue reading

The YPARD Business Plan 2014- 2018 is coming to a close and we need to start a conversation about where we go from here. We have had some amazing successes and also continue to face some recurring challenges. The next strategic plan will cover the period 2018-2021 and will reflect a time of growth for YPARD. We need some visionaries to... Continue reading

We are delighted to welcome the new YPARD Armenia representative Anna Hovhannisyan. Anna is an MSc graduate of the Agribusiness Teaching Center of Armenian National Agrarian University (ANAU). ATC is the collaborative effort of the ANAU, Texas A&M University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Marketing Assistance. Currently, she is working at the Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development (CARD) Foundation as... Continue reading