With successful completion of YPARD Awareness Campaign in agricultural universities of Nepal, YPARD had made a call to working body in Nepal. After series of informal gatherings and discussions, on 7-8 August 2013 YPARD Nepal hosted its first formal meeting including all the local representatives in Rampur, Chitwan making significant decisions for the year round activities. “YPARD is a global platform;... Continue reading

Starting a business is difficult. There is a lot to know and do, it is exhausting and expensive, and there are many moving parts. On top of that, as you also know only too well, money is usually tight. How do you balance the financial needs of renting space, hiring staff, building a brand, and launching a business? It's almost like deciding which of... Continue reading

We are currently witnessing a second urbanization wave. By 2050, the large majority of the additional 3 billion people will live in Asian and African medium-sized cities. Pressures will be the greatest where the urban and institutional infrastructure is the weakest. Many of the cities that will be created do not even exist yet. Many of the ones that do exist... Continue reading

YPARD is delighted to welcome Mohamed Sippo as YPARD Sierra Leone representative. Mohamed shares with us his inspiration and what led him to work for youth in agriculture’s empowerment and to become YPARD representative. “When I worked with RESTLESS DEVELOPMENT a leading youth led Organization in Sierra Leone, I realized that youths are the solutions to problems and are not the... Continue reading

Today in International Youth Day 2013 I would like to dedicate this post to all of my peers, the young professionals aspiring to become someone in the ICT4D field.  In his latest blog, Ken Banks from Kiwanja.net makes a very strong, yet realistic, criticism of the ICT4D field. According to him, over a decade has gone by with very little significant change in the field, and questions... Continue reading

Thank you YPARD! - Action Plans and new skills for the future By Johanna Gysin and Martina Graf The last week of the 26th International Leadership Workshop for Rural Youth has been coined by a very busy and highly concentrated atmosphere among the participants and facilitators of the seminar. In the first week we learnt all about team building, about motivation... Continue reading

I just read Bunmi Ajilore’s blog post, Youth Involvement in Agriculture: The Image Factor (Nigerian story/perspective) and I think it highlighted a very key issue with youth and agriculture - globally - Image. We all know that the in general, perceptions around agriculture are less than glamorous and the field is viewed as neither interesting nor lucrative enough especially when compared with... Continue reading

The 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week with the theme;- “Africa Feeding Africa through Agricultural Science and Innovation” was held between the 15th and 21st of July 2013 at Accra, Ghana and put together by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). It was an event  that I was happy to have participated in. You might wonder why I have said... Continue reading

Happy International Youth Day 2013 ! IYD is celebrated every year by the UN on the 12 August. The theme for this year is ‘Youth Migration: Moving Development Forward’. We asked young students and professionals in agriculture to share with us their experiences and insights about youth migration and its relation to Development. We particularly invited them to discuss rural-urban migration and... Continue reading

My name is Grace Muinga, an agricultural economist by profession. I have a Bachelors and a Master’s degree in Agriculture Economics from Egerton University in Kenya and University of Reading, UK respectively. I hail from Kenya. I have a passion for improving the food security situation in developing countries as well as reducing uncertainty and risk in the agriculture environment so... Continue reading

I am pretty much a city girl. I was born at a hospital in the city centre of the capital of Brazil, Brasilia. I grew up playing in and with another children in the streets using my rollers, adventuring in homemade karts (known as rolimãs in Brazil) or even running around because of the well-known “hide and seek” game. I was... Continue reading

“I Left Nigeria Once, I will Leave Again” - Many might wonder what I am talking about. But before I tell you where I left for and why, let me give you a brief background on my journey into Agriculture. As a young boy, I grew up around computers. From an early age I could handily clone, with my own hands... Continue reading

This year’s International Youth Day celebration is themed “Youth and Migration: Moving Development Forward.” The focus is for young people to discuss issues surrounding rural-urban and country to country youth migration. This situation needs attention because statistics show that 30% of migration occurs among youths. Growing up as a young agricultural student in Africa, studying Animal Science, one of my greatest... Continue reading

I am from a small rural community located in the southern part of the beautiful island, Trinidad. After completing my degree I moved back home but inadequate job opportunities in my field of study, inept mentorship programs and limited leisure activities at that time lead me to move to an urban community. Even though the rural communities were major providers of... Continue reading

With nearly 28 million people, though Nepal is predominantly an agrarian country, migration is increasingly becoming an important livelihood strategy for farm households in rural Nepal. Remittance has emerged as the lifeblood as earnings through agriculture in rural areas is insufficient and the youth prefer to go abroad where they have higher chances of earning more. A recent Nepal’s official data... Continue reading

The commonest form of migration is from rural to urban areas. Most young people move to urban areas, towns and cities due to a number of reasons. The location of industries, better infrastructures, better employment opportunities, jobs and lifestyles among others explain this phenomenon. “The location of businesses, organizations and government ministries in towns and cities is what drives the youth... Continue reading

According to the UN - Youths are seen as one of the most mobile social groups in migration context. They make up about 30% of international migrants. Migration could arise as a result of tranfer or a change in job, education or an entire family or individual relocating abroad for "greener pastures". Some could also be within a particular country for... Continue reading

I was raised in a dairy farm on the rural outskirts in the Tailevu North Province, Fiji Island. After primary education I moved to Suva the City to further my studies and I have been residing in the City for over 20 years. I have worked in the armed forces, join the business executive’s career but deep inside I had a... Continue reading

According to the report of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB),  remittance contributes about 25%  to the country's GDP and also according to the report of Department of Immigration of Tribhuvan International Airport  1500 plus  Nepali youths migrate abroad daily to foreign job market. These two facts depict how severe is the situation of youth migration in Nepal. The very low access to... Continue reading

The subject of youth migration brings to mind a number of points to debate on. Here, I postulate that in its initial stages, youth migration appears to be in response to fault lines within one’s own governance system. This could be as a result of a breakdown of social services and unfavourable socio-economic and political conditions. In the mature stages, youth... Continue reading