The theme of the 2016 International Youth Day , 12th of  August, is “The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Consumption and Production”. Through this theme, the United Nations recognize “the leading role of young people in ensuring poverty eradication and achieving sustainable development through sustainable consumption and production”. They use as objective and framework the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable... More

Getting rid of extreme poverty and hunger have always been at the centre of the global development goals. These goals appeared as number one on the list of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the precursor of the current Sustainable Development goals (SDGs). On the SDGs list, they are number 1 and 2 among the issues the global community is committed... More

With a population of close to 35m people, a total area of 241,038 square kilometres, and a forest cover of 4.9 million hectares, which represent just around 14.5% of the total area, Uganda is the most deforested country in East Africa. Besides, between 1990 and 2005, it experienced a 15% decrease in forest cover driven by increased land use for agriculture... More

In this guest blog post, Madhu Sudhan Ghimire, an agriculture student from Nepal urges for action to be taken to support rural communities and farmers, to avoid a food crisis in the country following the recent earthquake. This post is part of the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) network’s ongoing partnership with Farming First. It was Saturday 25th of April 2015: a normal day when... More

Communications - social media particularly – are crucial towards building a sustainable future. If you doubt it, try us and join the YPARD Social media Team! What is the YPARD Social Media Team (SMT)? YPARD SMT is an online group of more than 200 people: individuals or representatives of their organizations. The purpose of the group is to use social media... More

Agriculture accounts for almost 30% of the average GDP of the economies of East Africa countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia). It also provides employment and livelihood for more than 40% of people in the region. However, with a combined population of 154.4m people (minus Ethiopia) based on 2014 estimates, and a youth unemployment burden that ranges from 10.7% in Burundi to 17.1% in Kenya –... More

It was the first day of the Africa Agriculture Science Week (6th edition)– hosted by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Accra, Ghana – and like every other young social reporter/blogger for the conference I was struggling to find my way around the International Conference Centre and locate the venues for the side events I had penciled down... More

If the young professionals “Make Agriculture Cool Again” in GCARD2012, young guys “Make Agriculture Hot” in Islamabad, Pakistan. With the theme “Youth and Agriculture”, APAARI (Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions) and PARC (Pakistan Agriculture Research Council) organized the Regional Workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities for youth engagement in agriculture on October 23-24 at Islamabad, Pakistan. If youth... More

One month ago, Courtney and I reflected on the four recurring issues raised over and over again in events and activities with youth involved in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, conservation, development : (1) the lack for finance, (2) unattractiveness of the sector among the youth, (3) mismatch between the education system’s deliveries and the needs of the job market, (4) the lack... More

The state of "Foresight" Foresight (ability to explore/anticipate and plan the future) is considered essential for understanding future agricultural and rural development contexts and changes around the world, and for driving the research and innovation required to meet these needs.  An inventory of forward looking anticipatory works was conducted earlier this year by GFAR, the Global Forum on Agricultural Research. A... More

The 3rd RUFORUM Biennial Conference was held, last September, 24-28, 2012, in Entebbe, Uganda. The objective of this meeting was to exchange findings and experiences, and indentify lessons learned in order to improve performance of the agricultural sector. Discussions turned around strengthening Science and Technology capacity in Africa, strengthening value chains and innovation platform, and engaging African Youth in Rural Transformation.... More