To ensure healthier livelihoods worldwide – and in the long term -, the young generation needs to fully get their hands and minds into agricultural development now. Being connected through a global collective platform, through which they can realise their full potential and contribute proactively to innovative agricultural development is crucial to boost the active role of young people in agriculture.... Continue reading

YPARD is delighted to welcome Emmie Kio as a remote Youth-leader communications champion, to support YPARD Global Coordination Unit’s communications activities. Emmie Kio is an International development practitioner specializing in Agricultural Development, Communications and Social Media. As a seasoned agricultural writer, Emmie helps communicate on Agricultural activities in Kenya and beyond – especially on those activities that are sustainable from an Economic, Environmental... Continue reading

Behold the impressive muscles of the blue cattle. The chances that you get a blue cattle bull when you order or buy beef in Belgium is extremely high. Bulls - yes, they use bulls and not very often cows - are double muscled: due to a missing gene that normally blocks muscle growth. It's a natural mutation and there has been... Continue reading

"The Universe always conspires to help the dreamer", Paulo Coelho.  We all have something we like, hate or love, simply because we all have the potential to feel passionate about something.  Passion is the energy that keeps us going and filled with meaning, happiness and excitement. It's the driving force that makes us feel unique and what pushes us to keep... Continue reading

Social and networking events bring to the forefront important personal and professional relationships which are useful to organizations. While some won’t get you anywhere, others could become the source of endless innovation and development. Through those connections that do flourish, young people can be catalysts to solve big issues in their countries.  With this in mind, two events held in Harare,... Continue reading

One of my favorite words in the world is ingenuity. It’s my go to definition for people in agriculture who not only solve their problems but do so with a curiousity and a flair that most people do not have.This attitude could be compared to that of an architect or an inventor who takes functionality, visual impact, sustainability and usuability, merging... Continue reading

Recently, a group of Chinese young talents in the agriculture field attended a sharing meeting held at FAO headquarters in Rome, where YPARD Global Coordination Unit is based. All these young people are funded by the Ginkgo Fellowship, which is a scholarship program launched by Narada Foundation in China. While Marina Cherbonnier, YPARD web and communications manager hosted the meeting, Bi Jieying,... Continue reading

Hurdles of Marginalized Young People Young people are many times marginalized from the global regards and perspectives of the agricultural realm. They are also known as ‘separated youth’, which includes indigenous young people, youth with disabilities and young women. Most of them face several difficulties in having their rights recognized. For instance, they are many times obstructed to get equal education,... Continue reading

Hlamalani Ngwenya is an international consultant for GFRAS. She is involved in the “Talent development in agriculture: Growing ambitions for agricultural professionals” initiative that GFRAS is spearheading in collaboration with the International Agri-Food Network, YPARD, FAO, GCHERA, TAP, Nuffield International farming scholars and others.  This coalition serves as a response to the 2013 Committee on World Food Security’s endorsement of its... Continue reading

It is yet another opportunity to bring youth voice and lobby for wide engagement in African programs. This time, the opportunity consists of having being nominated as a board member to represent the youth in the African Agribusiness Incubator Network (AAIN). AAIN is an independently driven action network for Incubating incubators through advancing entrepreneurship, networking, science and technologies for job and... Continue reading

From 24 to 27 of June, the World Farmers’ Organization held in Milan the general assembly having three main topics to discuss: 1) respond to the nine billions world population with sustainable, equitable and inclusive solutions; 2) smart solutions for facing climate evolution; 3) meeting growing agricultural challenges with innovation solutions. As the Italian representative for YPARD, I was invited to... Continue reading

With a population of close to 35m people, a total area of 241,038 square kilometres, and a forest cover of 4.9 million hectares, which represent just around 14.5% of the total area, Uganda is the most deforested country in East Africa. Besides, between 1990 and 2005, it experienced a 15% decrease in forest cover driven by increased land use for agriculture... Continue reading

A question asked to primary school children? No, indeed this was something I asked myself when attending a conference “Agricultural Higher Education in the 21st Century.” Deans and professors of international universities were from 15-17 June, 2015 in Zaragoza, Spain to discuss about how to renew agricultural higher education in order to prepare efficient professionals that will face the challenging future... Continue reading

AgriYouthNepal announced open blog article contest on topic “ICTs in Nepalese Agriculture” for Nepalese citizens. Today, in Nepal, wireless network connection is available in every district and thanks to globalization, smartphones and internet connection has started being common among the Nepalese farmers too. Realizing the importance of ICT in agriculture, some innovative minds in Nepal have already started exploiting this technological boon... Continue reading

There’s a notion in general agricultural diaspora that the small farmers of the world are the majority group of food producers who truly feed the world. I would say this is true to a large extent but others may dismiss this an opinion. Regardless small farmers do make a contribution. They are a majority that is treated like a minority. The... Continue reading

In this guest blog post, Madhu Sudhan Ghimire, an agriculture student from Nepal urges for action to be taken to support rural communities and farmers, to avoid a food crisis in the country following the recent earthquake. This post is part of the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) network’s ongoing partnership with Farming First. It was Saturday 25th of April 2015: a normal day when... Continue reading

June 17th marks the international commitment or anniversary of ‘World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought’. Started in 1995 via a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly and agreed with the objective to generate awareness for preventing desertification and to manage the impact of drought. The year ‘2015’ marks two decades of worldwide recognition of desertification and increasing incidences of droughts as a... Continue reading

YPARD Kenya was proud to host the pilot Mentorship Programme on 4 – 6 June, 2015 at Desmond Tutu Centre in Westlands Nairobi, Kenya convened by YPARD Global Coordination Unit in collaboration with AWARD. The programme saw the convening of 15 mentors and 15 mentees from all over the country as well as from diverse sectors and institutions. The mentors and... Continue reading

Industry leaders, researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs and students of different universities gathered from 19-21 February for the 9th International Poultry Show and Seminar 2015 in the Bangabandhu International Conference Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The objective: improving food safety to help create a substantial poultry industry in Bangladesh. Both show and seminar were organized by the World's Poultry Science Association Bangladesh Branch (WPSA-BB), the... Continue reading

Background and Aims Youth in Rural Advisory Services are crucial to develop and sustain effective, efficient, inclusive, and sustainable RAS systems. But youth in RAS is a complex issue, with many challenges - and opportunities - faced on different levels by many actors.   The Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) launches this competition with the aim to stimulate the... Continue reading