Welcoming YPARD Togo representative: Germaine Gbete

We are delighted to welcome our very first YPARD Country representative for Togo: Germaine Gbete.

Germaine is a 32 year-old agro-economist with a master degree in Agricultural Economics, Food Process and Environment. She is currently doing her PhD at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS).  

She is an active member at several associations in Togo such as the Association for the Artistic and Social Development (ADAS-Togo) or AFECAPA. At ADAS-Togo, Germaine focuses on awareness of land regulation and how producers can improve their productivity and gain more profit from their production in the African country. At AFECAPA instead, she works with agricultural producers and different stakeholders. She also assists rural women and children who need help for their studies.

Becoming YPARD national representative in Togo represents a new challenge for her, but also an opportunity in order for the youth to contribute actively to an innovative agricultural development in Africa in general and in Togo in particular.

“I feel very honoured to be YPARD Togo representative as I will be able to contribute more to my country’s development through this network. I will organize many activities to consolidate our work and make sure that every member will realize his full potential, share knowledge and information with other members.”

Besides, Germaine plans to link YPARD with other young professionals-in-agriculture cooperatives in order to work together, leverage the improvement of the education system, as well as create discussions on innovation, communication and policies related to agriculture. She will also work to ensure youth representation at regional and local levels both in agricultural and political decision making processes, and to facilitate the dialogue between young people and other stakeholders within the agricultural sector.

“Today’s agriculture needs youth who are proactive and ready to be challenged. Thus, it’s key to collect and share with them as much information as possible to make sure youth’s voice is rising in the agricultural development sector.

Likewise, our producers need us to help them during all the production process. This is why I am thinking about facilitating their access to the market, making Togolese agriculture more competitive, boosting debates and advocating for better business environment for entrepreneurship and innovative agricultural development in Togo.

My future plan is to make YPARD more visible. To reach this objective, first, I will create a YPARD Togo Facebook group as well as a Google+ to coordinate all the members based in Togo. The following step will be to establish a bureau for YPARD Togo which will be composed by a secretary, a fundraising responsible, and a networking manager. Moreover, I will organize a YPARD Togo Café further in June 2015 to introduce the platform to the Ministries for Development and Agriculture, agencies which work within the agriculture sector and different authorities of the country.

We can’t wait to hear more from the Youth-in-Agriculture in Togo and we trust that YPARD Togo will be successful in mobilizing the youth through Germaine’s leadership.

Welcome on board, Germaine!

If you are from or based in Togo, and want to get involved in YPARD Togo activities, please contact Germaine at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..