After the epic moments spent in Cameroon at Limbe, the “Town of Friendship” last year, the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) decided to hold this year’s International Conference of the Australia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN), GFRASAPEN at Ingham, the “Town of Hospitality”, and at Townsville in Queensland, Australia. This is quite a good approach to vary the hosting country each... Continue reading

Across the different segments in the agricultural sector, an agreement was reached on the increasing need to have future leaders or professionals cut across the various aspect of the value chain. More importantly, the need to have professionals that will take charge of the growing population, the food needs and ultimately be equipped with knowledge, skills - especially in leadership, entrepreneurship... Continue reading

I was invited to present and host the poster session at Agri4D 2017, held in Uppsala, Sweden on 20th and 21st September 2017. The conference revolved around the theme of Rural Transformation and Urbanization and is a collaboration between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and the Swedish International Agriculture Network Initiative (SIANI). The event attracted more than 200 attendees... Continue reading

I recently returned from the 5th TAP partners assembly in Laos Thailand. What is that? And what does this mean for YPARD? TAP an acronym for the Tropical Agriculture Platform  is a capacity development platform that seeks to build stronger capacities for individuals and institutions to engage in agricultural innovation systems (AIS). It was born out of the need to provide soft... Continue reading

“YES!” That was the resounding answer of the Steering Committee of the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) after three YPARD members from the Philippines (Jim), Cameroon (Marc) and Trinidad and Tobago (Alpha) proposed the creation of the Youth Working Group that will work closely with GFRAS and Regional Rural Advisory Services (RAS) Networks.  This was during the 8th GFRAS Annual... Continue reading

We are delighted to welcome the new YPARD Albania representative Bledar Meta. Bledar has completed his Bachelor studies at the Agricultural University of Tirana, Faculty of Economics and Agribusiness, at the Agribusiness Management branch. After graduating, he participated in various training courses, one of which was training for Enterprise Management in Vienna-Austria, at the Institute of Professional Training “WIFI Austria”. He graduated... Continue reading

With the efforts to bring YPARD representative office in Albania, YPARD Europe team and Bledar Meta the newly selected YPARD Albania country representative organized an event to introduce the YPARD platform in Albania through an interactive presentation. The event was held on August 10th, 2017. In addition to presenting the global platform, Bledar also introduced the newly developed ideas for YPARD... Continue reading

As one is growing, several things shape them up more especially their environment and people around them. It is never easy to get someone who can stand with you and give a hand. In 2016, I graduated from EARTH University with a Bachelor’s degree in agronomic engineering I had so many ideas and so much energy to start life, but did... Continue reading

The Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and The World Bank launched a programme to pilot the use of Principles Guiding New Investments in Agriculture in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, in 2015. The aim is... Continue reading

The FAO Regional Office for Africa in partnership with the Capacity Development Unit (OPCC) of the Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development Division (OPC), SP2 , SP3, the African Agribusiness Incubator Network (AAIN), Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), and the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) - Africa is organising a three-week online consultation from the 25th October to 15th November 2017 (in English... Continue reading

Agriculture remains one of the trendiest topics of discussion on social media. And quite recently you may have taken notice of the hashtag #faraedspeaks on social media: on Twitter in particular. This tag labels contributions to a discussion which with the Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, the Executive Director (ED) of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) held with some professionals... Continue reading

This week is Pollution Prevention Week!  The United States Environmental Protection Agency has dedicated this week to increasing efforts to reduce and eliminate sources of pollution to prevent damage to the environment, as well as maintain the planet’s resources and move towards sustainability. In order for pollution prevention efforts to move forward, engineers are creating and improving multiple technologies that deal... Continue reading

After the epic moments spent in Cameroon at Limbe, the “Town of Friendship” last year, the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) decided to hold this year’s International Conference of the Australia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN), GFRASAPEN at Ingham, the “Town of Hospitality”, and at Townsville in Queensland, Australia. This is quite a good approach to vary the hosting country each... Continue reading

In the Stone Age, it is common to see farmers ride on bicycles while most trek several miles and distances to their farms with pride that they are off to do their daily business of tilling the land and raising the seed of hope to feed the world. In this new age and era where the message of agriculture is being... Continue reading

Young people want to be part of the policy discussion, programme development, implementation, working groups and dialogues that produce best practices and sustainable solutions to emerging global issues. YPARD – Young Professional for Agricultural Development is a name that echoes across continents, regions and countries of the World in promoting agriculture among youths through various strategies and approach. Having identified that... Continue reading

I was so overwhelmed with the joy of traveling to South Africa, it was like a candle was lit inside of me and I could scarcely rest for the couple of hours that I was in the plane though it was a night trip. It was my first experience of flying on a plane and I was so excited in spite... Continue reading

Generations have passed away but agriculture remains constant.  In the olden days, one can only identify and define a farmer on the appearance of an old man with bicycle, holding cutlasses and tying his or her hoe, a basket of yam and cassava and sometimes firewood at the back of the bicycle.  For some growing children, if asked to draw a... Continue reading

My name is Pilirani Tendai Khoza from Malawi. I was a youth keynote speaker at the 2017 The MasterCard Foundation Young Africa Works Summit on the topic of “gender.” Upon arriving in Kigali for the first time, I distinctly remember it being an amazing place where I gained a lot of insight by experiencing the Rwandese culture at first hand. Needless... Continue reading

The involvement of youth in the 7th Forest Science Symposium: My IFSA / South Africa experience I was so overwhelmed with the joy of travelling to South Africa, it was like a candle was light inside of me and I could scarcely rest for the couple of hours that I was in the plane though it was a night trip. It... Continue reading

Uganda has seen strong economic growth with a threefold increase in per capita GDP over the past generation. Extreme poverty has also been eliminated to one-third of the population.  There is visible evidence of this growth in the increasing traffic on our roads, the increasing number of storey buildings in the central business district and all the suburbs of Kampala, the... Continue reading