by Maxwell Mkondiwa, reporting from the 6th Community Based Adaptation Conference in Vietnam It is now recognized worldwide that agricultural and farming systems need to be improved beyond their capacities if the human race is to avert the catastrophe that may result as population growth exceeds food production. Catastrophe seem likely when you consider the billions of people who will be food insecure... More

A group of young graduates in Kenya have introduced a mobile-phone enabled technology which will help farmers in rural Africa to link up with crop researchers, meteorological departments and veterinary scientists to better their farm yields. Calvins Okello, a science graduate from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and a colleague, Gordon Owiti, have developed the new technology... More

YPARD China will hold YPARD China launching conference in Beijing, in partnership with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), in late May 2012. A pre-survey has been conducted in order to identify Chinese YPs’ interests in YPARD website YPs’ role in Modern Agriculture Approaches to promote young people to be involved in agricultural activities Means to accelerate the communication among China... More

Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences hosted a Young Professionals' Science Forum to discuss the basic qualities for a YP, the atmosphere for a better research, the system for improvement of YP's, on 26th April, in Beijing, China. Jieying Bi, YPARD China Representative was invited to share her experiences in FAO, GFAR and YPARD. YPARD China won great success from the promotion... More

Did you know that Today, 26th April 2012, is the International Day of Girls in ICT? I have been lucky enough to discuss with e-agriculture team, on how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) present valuable opportunities for young women to strengthen their capacities and have a voice. You can have a look to the short video! I would like to highlight... More

The University of Ghana recently hosted over 100 agricultural stakeholders from around the world to discuss the role of young people in farming and food. The conference which ran from 19th to 21 March was dubbed Young People, Farming and food and organized by Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) an independent learning alliance of academic researchers and practitioners involved in African agriculture.... More

Hunger v/s Food wastage Every day, we hear in the news that people in different parts of the world are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Nearly one billion people in the world go  to sleep hungry each night since they do not have anything to feed themselves due to several reasons (economic & food crisis, increase in food prices, over-exploitation of the... More

Although Kenyan youths make up over 75 per cent of the country's population, farming is not considered an attractive option. This mentality has been entrenched in the education system that traditionally dooms the academically challenged to farming, otherwise known as the 'poor man's profession'. As a result, according to Kenya's agricultural ministry, the average age of a Kenyan farmer is 55.... More

The YPARD coordinator, regional coordinator, and representatives for some Asian regions met in India in March, 2012 to formalise some of the activities for the region.  Some of the ideas that came out were as follows: Activities Learning Needs Assessment Working with different stakeholder groups to identify their capacity development needs.  These should be country specific (and more so, if possible).  This... More

Machteld Schoolenberg has just ended 6 months of internship with YPARD. She was working 8 hours a week as Web4knowledge intern, remotely, from the Netherlands. She dealt with information management on the YPARD website and social media. Machteld will be particularly missed for her excellent communication skills and strong ability to familiarize herself with the different ICTs she had to use.... More

This success story is based on the presentation made at the Southern Africa Telecentre Network and Panos Institute of Southern Africa Media Forum on the Role of ICTs in Agricultural Development . The success story is based on Panos experiences in implementing radio/ICT initiative in Zambia in particular Kasempa and Itezhi Tezhi districts under a programme supported by Common Market for... More

The critical challenge in African countries and Zambia in particular is access to information resources and services that add value to the lives of people. Most of the potential of rural African resources and its people still remain untapped. Thus among others, we face several challenges. To contribute to the development of ICTs in southern Africa, Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET... More

The session on 'engaging young people' brought out different people to share their experiences on how they engage young people in the agrifood sector in Africa. These are some of the ideas that came out of this session (to which YPARD also shared their experiences) during the Future Agricultures conference on youth, farming and the agrifood sector in Africa. When we... More

The Global Consortium for Higher Education and Research for Agriculture (GCHERA) 2011 During this conference, several trends emerged.  There is a general consensus is that agricultural curriculum is outdated and is lacking in innovation, that partnerships with potential employers is not as strong as it should be, that soft skills are lacking and that a more inter-disciplinary approach is needed. A... More

YPARD will be attending The World Food Prize in conjunction with the “Borlaug Dialogue international symposium on “The Next Generation” and the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute, from October 12 to 15, 2011, Des Moines, Iowa.   The World Food Prize is an international award given to those whose work has significantly improved food quality, quantity or availability. The World... More

Con estas palabras resumió el investigador peruano Luis Suárez, el positivo balance de su participación, en nombre de YPARD-LAC, en la décima reunión de Consejo Ejecutivo de FORAGRO realizado los días 21 y 22 de septiembre en Lima, Perú. Esta reunión tuvo como doble objetivo principal tanto prepararse para participar en la reunión del GCARD que tendrá lugar en Montevideo, Uruguay... More

The YPARD Coordinator travelled to meet with the YPARD LAC coordinator at CIAT in Cali, Colombia.  The pair discussed strategies to build up the region, get more young people interested and activities that could propel the region ahead in 2012. Plans for the region include increased awareness, displaying the testimonials of young people in the LAC region active in ARD, linking... More

Having been involved in more than one mapping project involving youth, I have always felt a missing component, that of helping youth use the skills they acquire to make a living. I always felt that empowering youth to get out and source for themselves is key. Being the representative of YPARD in Kenya, this was an opportunity for me to assist... More

Having been involved in more than one mapping project involving youth, I have always felt a missing component, that of helping youth use the skills they acquire to make a living. I always felt that empowering youth to get out and source for themselves is key. Being the representative of YPARD in Kenya, this was an opportunity for me to assist... More

At the International conference for innovations in extension and rural advisory services 2011, Nairobi, YPARD engaged interested participants on a discussion entitled: ‘youth in extension: are we making the most of our young assets’?  The aim of this discussion was to share the outcomes from the YPARD e-discussion on young professionals in extension, hear the experiences of YPARD members active in... More