Young Farmer in Nicaragua - Neil Palmer CIATDeadline: 25 May 2014

Farming First! - That’s the name of a coalition of over 130 organisations. The coalition articulates actions towards sustainable agricultural development worldwide. It gathers multi-stakeholder representatives: world’s farmers, scientists, engineers and industry as well as agricultural development organisations.

With one shared voice, Farming First highlights the importance of improving farmers’ livelihoods and agriculture’s potential contribution to global issues such as food securityclimate change, gender, sustainable agriculture and nutrition.

We believe it is time for youth representatives to join the coalition and add on their youth perspectives! Farming First and Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) are joining forces to add a young voice to the Farming First blog.

Young Writers WANTED!

In order to kick off this partnership, we are calling for young writers’ contribution for June on the topic: Youth and Agriculture. This broad topic is meant to give contributors the freedom to choose their personal perspective on the role of the youth in agriculture.

You may refer to your very own experience. Perhaps are you farmer yourself, or working in a youth project related to farming and food system, or focusing on youth and gender issues within food and farming. You could give us an insight on the challenges you face and the opportunities you see for the youth.

How do I contribute?

Before being pre-selected, candidates (up to 40 years old) are asked to submit a short 300 word synopsis of their proposed article, by May 25th, 2014. This should include:

The selected Youth Guest will then submit their article by June 2nd. We will be expecting:

Take a look at some of the experts who have guest blogged for Farming First this year, to get familiar with their preferred style of content:

Emily Alpert: Can you be resilient on one acre or less?

Lewis Temple: Building Businesses in the Skies

Mark Rosegrant: What is the role of agricultural technologies in global food security?

Farming First and YPARD will jointly select the writer who will submit the blog. You post may be receive final edits from the Farming First editorial team. Selection criteria will include:
- How inspiring and compelling your story is?
- How concrete your message and examples are, towards spotlighting youth’s key role in agriculture

Please send your expression of interest to Liz Sharma <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>  by May 25th, 2014. The selected candidate will be notified on 26th May and the blog post should be submitted by June 2nd.

Join the coalition now!

Picture credit: Neil Palmer, CIAT