We are moving onto the second and final phase of the YPARD Seeing Thoughts video contest : elaborating documentaries. YPARD Seeing Thoughts video competition is an attempt to capture and showcase the voices of youth and their contribution to agriculture for development, whether in research, in production or assisting a community to develop a sustainable livelihood. The project was divided into... More

Tell us about your partnership initiatives for youth inclusion for agricultural development!On August 12, we will be celebrating the Youth on International Youth Day. The assigned theme for 2012 is: Building a Better World: Partnering with Youth, meant to celebrate and solicit action together with and for the youth!Initiated by the UN Secretary-General, this event encourages for multiple stakeholders to discuss... More

              The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in collaboration with the Faculty of Agriculture (University of Mauritius) and the Food and Agricultural Research Council (FARC) organised a workshop on Web 2.0 Learning Opportunity in Mauritius from 9-13 July 2012 at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mauritius, Reduit. I was invited... More

The last event of the celebration of the 45th anniversary of CIAT was the so-called World Cafe, where participants were asked the question: Is bio-economy an alternative for young people to regain interest in agriculture?This event was organized in a team between the ALCUE-KBBE project and the chapter for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Young Professionals Platform for Agricultural... More

As the academic year draw to an end at Njala University, the newly founded YPARD Sierra Leone local working group members have volunteered to create further sensitization in their various communities while on vacation. Statistics from our last meetings held on the 27th of June 2012 at Sierra Leone’s National Agricultural Training Centre (NATC) and on the 28th of June 2012... More

Yesterday evening, I opened my Facebook page and could not miss the status updates of my friends of the Faculty of Agriculture who passed their final year exams and are going to graduate soon... Status updates on Facebook My first reaction was happiness for them, since I still remember being in the same situation last year, and the feeling of completing... More

Dear colleagues I am calling on all YPARD members from or working in South Africa to get in touch with me so that we network and strengthen YPARD activities in the country. I was recently appointed the YPARD representative for South Africa. I am a researcher based at the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) of Tshwane University of Technology... More

The first event organized by YPARD China was a strong start from a very important region.  Young professionals from different parts of China undertook long train journeys to be part of a momentous occasion and the first of its kind for YPARD in China!  The day started out with many distinguished speakers from the hosts, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences... More

I was invited by GYIN (Global Youth Innovation Network) to attend - on behalf of YPARD - the presentation of the African Economic Outlook 2012 focusing on Youth Employment, at IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), on Friday 8 June. The presentation included a short macro-economic overview and a discussion on youth employment enhancement. Let me emphasize here the key aspects... More

I was invited by GYIN (Global Youth Innovation Network) to attend - on behalf of YPARD - the presentation of the African Economic Outlook 2012 focusing on Youth Employment, at IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), on Friday 8 June 2012. The presentation included a short macro-economic overview and a discussion on youth employment enhancement. This was an excellent opportunity for... More

BioVisionAlexandria (BVA) is an international event organized by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA), in partnership with the World Life Sciences Forum, BioVision. This year “BioVisionAlexandria: New Life Science: Linking Science to Society” was held from 21-25 April 2012 at Alexandria, Egypt.  BioVisionAlexandria is an important gathering that brings together distinguished speakers and Nobel Laureates all over the world. It includes representatives of... More

On June 12th – 13th June 2012, YPARD was present in Brussels as an official member at the Steering Committee Meeting of EFARD (the European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development) through Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu. Reporting back from the EFARD SC Meeting, Codrin mentions that the strategic objectives of the Forum are to encourage dialogue between European AR4D stakeholders by promoting awareness,... More

Introduction YPARD Vietnam has organized two training courses, that gathered over 140 farmers, on 13-June for Coffee and 16-June 2012 for Tea farmers in Lam Dong province, Vietnam. These courses had done very successfully. Coffee and tea farmers were very happy and feel highly enthusiastic with the course. Lam Dong province is one of provinces that grow a lot of Tea... More

The 4th Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) was held on 18th June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The ARDD took place in parallel with the United Nation's Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. More than 500 participants attended the event comprising of high level policy makers, scientists, negociators, journalists, farmer organizations, civil societies and other stakeholders in... More

Under the support of YPARD, YPARD Asia and CAAS, the “Climate Change and Food Security—Role of Young Professionals in ARD YPARD China Promoting Conference” was successfully held in CAAS on 5th June, 2012.  Over 190 participants from 21 organizations attended this great YPARD China event:   International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), OXFAM, International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC),... More

In the context of my country, Kenya, [which is] largely reliant on agriculture, sustainable development will work only if we empower our smallholder farmers [SHFs] on better ways to farm. One reason why there are constant food shortages even in arable areas is because our farmers still use rudimentary farming methods that can't work now, when farmlands are less and less.... More

“My participation to the Youth, ICT and Agricultural innovation workshop, Ugunja, Kenya, 24th May” This workshop was part of the research to find out how rural youth can be empowered through ICT to come up with ideas that will contribute towards agricultural innovations and hence rural agricultural sustainability. This was after it was clear that many rural youth are leaving agricultural... More

I have attended  the meeting Climate Change and Food Security—Role of Young Professionals in ARD—YPARD China Promoting Conference that was held in Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS) on 5th June, 2012.  It's my first time to interview the international conference. Many experts from research academies and universities gave academic presentations and provided some suggestions on YPs’ participation in research activities and international... More

It is a big pleasure and honor for me to take over the coordination of YPARD Europe! While thinking about my welcome text for YPARD blog, I started to realize that I’ve been working in agricultural business for almost 12 years now! And still, I belong to the young professionals!As I am new to the community, I’d like to give you... More

A recent conference entitled ‘Young People, Farming and Food Conference’ co-hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium and the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research took place on 19th -21st March 2012 in Accra, Ghana. It looked in detail at the future of the agri-food sector in Africa and the engagement of the youth. I prepared a paper for this conference... More