Maxwell Mkondiwa Farmer experimentation and field school using System of Rice Intensification: Youths involved in taking a video to showcase in another area (Cho Moi District, Bac Kan Province, Vietnam). A community or village is normally treated as a unified unit consisting of various individuals who share various common resources and institutions. Practitioners have indeed implemented development projects in this so... More

YPARD welcomes Martina Graf as the YPARD Europe coordinator for the recently established YPARD Europe Chapter. Martina will lead the development of the European network, creating a working group with the young professionals who have demonstrated their interest in working to shape the YPARD plan of action for Europe.  Martina is based in Switzerland, holds a Bachelor of Science in International... More

AT AKURE, NIGERIA. THE ENTERPRENEUR UNDER 25 (EU-25) FORUM THEME: AGRIC-BUSINESS On April 29 2012, fifteen (15) young men and women came together to discuss on the future of agriculture and agric-business in Nigeria. The EU-25 is a monthly entrepreneur forum which is done over lunch where entrepreneurs under the age of 25 come together to discuss on how effectively create... More

YPARD is welcoming three new country representatives in Africa: in Malawi, Mali and Sierra Leone. Get to know more about them and liaise with them to get involved in national and local initiatives with YPARD! Maxwell Mkondiwa, in Malawi Maxwell Mkondiwa is the YPARD Malawi representative. He is a 22 years old research fellow (intern) at the Centre for Agricultural Research... More

I had a vision to start a company when I graduated from the Njala University in 2009, in Sierra Leone. I shared this vision with three of my friends, they were positive about it and encouraged that I extend the invitation to the whole class of seven Agricultural Engineering students. The problems was unemployment especially for agriculture graduates, it was a... More

YPARD is welcoming three interns to support information services through ypard.net, increase YPARD visibility and community interaction on Social Networks, and strengthen the reach of YPARD in three languages: English, Spanish and French. YPARD is eager to get more young people from all over the world involved in youth and agricultural development, and this will enable us to provide enhanced support... More

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

YPARD - Young Professionals’ Platform in Agricultural Research for Development - wishes to contribute to the debate on change in formal higher agricultural education with integrating the views of young professionals. Indeed, the views of young professionals have not previously been included in discussions on curricula development. Therefore an YPARD study has been initiated in 2011. The report is now available... 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 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

YPARD was invited by the Young Professionals in Local Development (YPLD) to talk about international ARD and local development at “Raise the stake”, 18th February, Siret Romania. YPARD presented the importance of international ARD for local development, most importantly to assert the role of the youth in these mechanisms, and how YPARD can help the youth take and get their stake.... More