Promoting YPARD India among rural Young People

I have found social media tools especially helpful for promoting any type of organisation. They enable me to schedule my posts. Let's all start using #YPARD to put up posts both on Twitter and Facebook. When there is no internet service available, then schedule it for posting at times when we would not be available. It saves our time and money.

There are lots of constraints for using ICT and social media, including power, poor infrastructure by the communication provider and the cost too. However, it also brings with it many opportunities to get young people thinking about how they can come up with solutions for the agri-sector without totally depending on the government.

Our use of social media will help us to have a realistic view of the development that ICT use can bring to the agricultural sector. Transformation can only occur once young people, who are open-minded, inquisitive and fast to adapt to change, have access to ICT and social media.

I have interest in young people in rural areas, and one of the challenges that come along with this is the fact that they do not have access to the internet like young people in the city. So I look forward to a future where young people can have e-centres where they can use the internet. A future where young people remain in rural areas to run productive farms and still return home to their internet enabled mobile phones and tablets to check up on updates and information related to their area of expertise. A future where ICT use can make agriculture trendy and cool. This might be one essential way to stop the rural–urban migration trend that is keeping so many rural young people away from agriculture and therefore also agribusiness.

I therefore plan a social media outlet for YPARD India promotion. This involved opening a facebook group and page for these young people where they can hold discussions among themselves, access information and share experiences. Then we can plan to take a step further and open a Twitter account to draw information from other organisations and attract young visitors to YPARD India group, page and other websites that provide them with important information and guidance.

This blog post is part of the GCARD3 Youth blogpost applications. The content, structure and grammar is at the discretion of the author only.

Related resources: join YPARD India Facebook group.