Do you believe that “we are stronger when we work together”? We, YPARD and IAAS, believe so. Cooperation is the key to moving forwards in encouraging youth engagement in agricultural development. With the aim at strengthening the long-established cooperation of Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) and the International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences (IAAS), on 4th April... Continue reading

Después del éxito de las primeras Jornadas de Investigación Agraria para el Desarrollo organizadas algunos años atrás, las segundas han tenido lugar en la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid entre el 22 y el 23 de marzo 2017, con el objetivo de reunir a los actores principales del sector, como pueden ser las ONG, universidades, agencias de cooperación, centros de investigación, etc,... Continue reading

Dear YPARD fellows, Today I would like to draw your attention to SEMA-project in which among others The Institute for Rural Development Research (IfLS) in Frankfurt together with my company - Hof und Leben in Germany - are involved. The SEMA project focuses on fostering Sustainable Entrepreneurship in Multifunctional Agriculture. The main aim of the SEMA project is to provide training and capacity building opportunities according... Continue reading

  The MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works Summit was a convening of giants and experienced agricultural practitioners in Africa and its sub-regions. It was a formal affair where requests were made, research findings were shared, contacts exchanged and long lasting relationships were forged. I was selected as a youth delegate and the 3 -day interactive conference will go down in my... Continue reading

After the success of the first Spanish Conference of Agrarian Research for Development many years ago, the second was held by the Technical University of Madrid between the 22nd and 23rd of March, 2017 with the objective to gather the main actors in the sector  such as NGOs, universities, cooperation agencies, research centers, etc. to discuss the problematic it is facing due to... Continue reading

 On February 15th, the day before the Young Africa Works (YAW) Summit kicked off,  YPARD partnered with The MasterCard Foundation to deliver a one-day pre-Summit workshop for the youth delegates attending the YAW Summit. The workshop aimed at equipping the youth delegates with practical skills relevant to their participation at the Summit. These skills included communication, networking, pitching and live tweeting just... Continue reading

Pig production and its development prospects are faced with challenges for farm operators and other players along the piggery sector. Most of the pig farmers in Nigeria are seen to be making use of traditional methods and practices for the process of mating and detecting the ovulating cycles of pigs. Hence, there is a need to develop technology that handles this... Continue reading

When I was selected to attend the Regional Symposium on ‘Integrating Gender & Nutrition in Ag Extension’, I had no idea it was about. I was thinking that it was going to be one of those types of events that I would have to join and only listen, but ultimately I was wrong! The entire event was full of Inspiration and... Continue reading

We've hit another milestone with our first mobile journalism training course..finally! Tech4agri has been practicing mobile journalism for two years. We have slowly been getting better and now we wish to pass on the knowledge we have learned to other budding entrepreneurs. Mobile Journalism focuses on the use of mobile devices, apps and accessories to gather and edit product content. This... Continue reading

My name is Emmanuel Fiifi Musah and I am a second-year Agribusiness student of the premier Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Ghana as well as a MasterCard Foundation Scholar. I come from the Central part of Ghana but throughout my life, I have lived in the Volta Northern part of Ghana where agriculture is predominantly the mainstay economic... Continue reading

The second edition of The MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works Summit took place in Kigali, Rwanda and I was fortunate to be among the youth delegates selected to attend. The summit that brought close to 300 participants including 47 young people aimed at finding ways to achieve sustainable and meaningful livelihoods for the youth in the Agriculture sector by engaging the... Continue reading

As with all Summits and events, they come and go. But, The MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works Summit (YAW 2017) was an exceptional one. We sat down with Pacifique Nshimiyimana, one of the youth delegates to get a feel of how the conference was in general and in particular the Young Africa Works Pre Summit workshop session run by YPARD. Enjoy... Continue reading

Would you believe me if I told you that prior to attendingThe MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works Summit I never thought people could depend on agriculture and farming in general as a means of livelihood? Well, let me take you through that journey. My name is Valence Musanga and I’m currently on an internship at Digital Opportunity Trust –Kenya. Basically, we... Continue reading

My expectations are high after the Young Professionals in Agricultural Development (YPARD)’s meeting at the Young Africa Works Summit (YAW) 2017 in Kigali, Rwanda. I was  privileged to be among the youth selected to participate in the Young Africa Works Summit 2017  as a youth delegate. I got a chance to partake in a series of capacity building activities as we... Continue reading

We are delighted to welcome a new steering committee member: Rahul Antao. Rahul is a  food and agricultural sciences graduate from the Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche and currently works as a consultant on Rural Youth for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on the organization’s youth desk. Following a natural curiosity in food and culinary arts, Rahul moved into understanding... Continue reading

We are delighted to welcome the new cohort of remote YPARD Web4Knowledge interns: Lemien Sakalunga (DRC Congo) and former intern Husein Shahadu (Ghana) who renewed his term.  Lemien Sakalunga is an agricultural engineer specializing in agricultural economics with years of experience in blogging, web communication and social media. As a blogger, Lemien helps the Congo bloggers community by coordinating the Kinshasa... Continue reading

Women constitute a large percentage of the workforce in the agricultural sector. The 2017 International Women’s Day has a global theme that showcases women’s ability to drive the needed change in the world and in their field of operations, particularly for women in agriculture. Research has shown that Africa is capable of feeding itself and ending hunger but there are challenges that limit these potentials.... Continue reading

How would it be if two of the largest networks and associations of youth in agriculture, YPARD and IAAS, cooperate further on national levels? It is certainly a promising outcome for more proactive engagement of young professionals in agricultural development worldwide. With this vision in mind, the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) Europe is heading to the Exchange Coordinator Meeting... Continue reading

On Thursday 23rd of March, 2017 I went to the presentation of the Nature Outlook Report where I was one of the panelists of the debate session. The objective of my presentation was to give my inputs on the question: How can nature be relevant for a sustainable future of agriculture? A big question, isn’t it? I am a Scientific Project... Continue reading

Have you seen or heard of a musical production that advocated for the promotion of agriculture to young people? On March 14th and 15th, 2017, AGRA: A New Musical took place with that advocacy behind it!  With two shows per day – one in the afternoon and another in the evening. AGRA had an original script in Filipino with 15 original... Continue reading