Waka Waka (This time for Africa) is a song popularized by Shakira. This song was used as the theme song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It was a huge, global event as football fans from around the world descended on South Africa to witness excellence on the field. Another global event is coming to the rainbow nation this April. The GCARD3 is... Continue reading

There is huge demand of the Nepalese coffee but the production is not meeting the demand. More often than not, when talking about the coffee people talk about the instant coffee. This increase in the demand of coffee could be as a result of changes in food habits. In the fiscal year 2013-14 the Nepalese coffee imports increased from Nrs. 31.73... Continue reading

“#Youth should be more vocal about #AsianIrrigation Issues to give stakeholders a stronger sense of urgency. They need to know we are involved.” –Asian Youth Initiative More than 100 stakeholders including policy-makers, Non-Government Organizations (NGO), research institutions, young professionals, young farmers and youth representatives from different parts of the Asia converged from January 20-22, 2016 at the Asian Development Bank (ADB)... Continue reading

The main concern remains that the average age of the farmers in the Caribbean is above 45 years and many are actually over 60 years (Greene 2010).  In a study entitled Youth in Agriculture- Challenges and Opportunities, the average age of farmers in the Caribbean is 55 years and the life expectancy in the region averages about 65 to 70 years... Continue reading

There is a current wave of issues concerning how to engage the youth in Agriculture and this is a major agricultural development agenda. It is evident that Ghana’s agriculture has an image problem which makes it unattractive to the youth and if am allowed to say,“it isn’t cool’’. The images of farmers most youth have are of an old person wearing... Continue reading

Mariola (Spain), Vincent (Uganda) and Simon (the UK) have already started the #YPARD10years festivities - join them! YPARD turned 10 this year. May you have joined YPARD a long time ago, just recently or not yet, YPARD is YOUR international community of young professionals for agricultural development, and its supporters. You are at the centre of its “raison d’être” and the... Continue reading

The theme of the event was picked from an event held by FANRPAN a few years back. The idea was to help the Agriculture faculty students see the new directions of agriculture from just farming to agribusiness while placing more emphasis on the comfortable and enjoyable life that youth in agriculture can live and enjoy if they do things right. YPARD... Continue reading

Mrs. Chandra Kala Shrestha, a 31 year old woman has been practicing modern agriculture since 2011 in her small sized farm in Madhyapur Thimi, Nepal. She grows mostly offseason vegetables like tomatoes and pumpkins on her 0.3 ha of land and is continuously supported by her husband, Mr. Anil Kumar Shrestha as far as agricultural operations are concerned. Like many other... Continue reading

Patch agriculture is an ancient activity in Africa that has been practiced for centuries in backyards and open spaces. It entails the use of small plots of land for growing vegetables or rearing animals and its an activity which is practiced in rural and urban areas.    In urban areas it can be found in public lands, undeveloped private lands and... Continue reading

The mentorship I have received from Dr. Franklin Simtowe is beyond measure. He has been an outstanding mentor and his contribution to my life is evident. It is good to note that Dr. Franklin and I have had all our monthly meetings face to face, with regular communication via email, text messages, WhatsApp and direct calls. During our first meeting, we... Continue reading

  A lot has happened in the past six months of the YPARD mentoring program. And it was time to have a face to face session with my mentor and evaluate progress. Meeting a mentor and a friend was so exciting; it was a different session since previous sessions was done over the phone, being the only way to overcome the... Continue reading

It’s hard to explain the feeling that I experience when I sit down to a meal where the vegetables being served once started as a pack of seeds in my hand. It’s even more fulfilling and stirs a great sense of pride in me when I see my fresh produce feeding my neighborhood. When I decided to first start greenhouse farming... Continue reading

In 2016 YPARD is celebrating ten years since its official launch at the GFAR Triennial meeting in New Delhi, November 2006.  It was born from the challenges facing young professionals in agricultural development and the need for a support structure. This year is the occasion to celebrate YPARD’s 10 year achievements and reaffirm our focus on supporting youth in today’s fast-paced,... Continue reading

It is definitely important and beneficial when activities in the research sphere fit in and meet the needs and priorities of its target group. When looked at holistically, it is important that research institutions, whether international, regional or national, ensure their research and results meet the need of the countries where they find themselves. This was the core of discussions and... Continue reading

Statistics released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the year 2015 reveal that 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy life with a majority of the world’s hungry people living in developing countries  and 12.9 percent of the population being undernourished. Similarly, hidden hunger which is also referred to as micronutrient... Continue reading

We are delighted to welcome our very first YPARD Country representative for Madagascar: Malala Onisoa Rakotojaofeno Malala, a Malagasy environmentalist and economist by training has over five years on evironmental related issues. Her areas of expertise include Environment, development, economics and agriculture. Currently, she is a PhD student at the University of Antananarivo and have been involved in agricultural activities since... Continue reading

“Peter Casier is now delivering the introduction to social media #GCARD3,” This was the first tweet about GCARD3 Social Media Training, tweeted by Ratih (@ratatatih) on 7th, December 2015, in Bangkok, Thailand. This training organized by GFAR, covered an overview of all social media tools, their use for nonprofit causes and how to put all these into one strategy in a... Continue reading

This blogpost by Nikita Bhusal, one of the GCARD3 social reporter,originally appeared on the GFAR website. Reflecting on discussions at the recent High level Policy Dialogue in Bangkok, Nikita Bhusal, a student of Food Technology from Nepal, believes the transition from traditional and subsistence agriculture in the Asia Pacific region depends on how we attend to a number of “flashpoints” for agricultural... Continue reading

According to the World Bank, the food and agriculture sector accounts for 10 percent of the global gross domestic product, which makes the sector worth almost $5 trillion. If we look at the food as output of farms, it is either sold immediately as raw food, agricultural commodity, or it is being processed and then sold as an intermediate or final... Continue reading

If a system has been created out of necessity, with unimaginable governmental influence, what happens when necessity is gone and the influence that has sustained the system dissipates? The International Agroecology Conference in Cuba this year drew up many issues and exposed these questions. Cuba is on the front line of major change, how they handle this change will have far... Continue reading