Farmers in rural areas are associated with inadequate technical knowledge on good agricultural production and post-harvest techniques that lead a cycle of poverty. In addition to these, they lack access to sufficient veterinary services for their livestock. This results in economic losses due to disease and pest infestations. To bridge the knowledge gap in these rural areas and strengthen rural knowledge... More

The Ghana Association of Agricultural Economists (GAAE) held its third annual conference at the ISSER Conference Facility- University of Ghana, Legon from July 23-26, 2019. The conference theme was “Sustainable agriculture and national development: Finance, Markets and Job creation”. The three-day conference brought together academia, researchers, industry partners and young entrepreneurs interested in developing careers in agribusiness. Apart from plenary discussion... More

The cocoa industry is vital to the development of Ghana’s economy as it constitutes about 1.8% of the country’s GDP. It is a major contributor to agricultural growth, employment, rural household incomes and macroeconomic stability. Despite its critical role, Ghanaian youth have been reluctant to engage in business within the cocoa value chain in the face of ageing cocoa farmers. This... More

It was refreshing and exciting to experience the total involvement of young agricultural professionals of YPARD from ten (10) African countries involved in the inception meeting of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), Capacity Development and Technology Outreach (CDTO) Enabler Compact held at Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) Secretariat in Accra, Ghana from 10th to 12th July 2018. It... More

Africa’s agricultural system is faced with many challenges such lack of access to material and monetary resources, low investor confidence in agriculture and unfortunately wrong perceptions of youth about the farming enterprise as a whole. However young men and women who are the future of nation have the energetic, creativity and innovation to drive the agriculture sector forward. To harness these... More

The Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) Ghana has successfully signed a letter of cooperation with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) for “domestication, data population and local management of the eCapacities™ platform”. The eCapacities™ platform will foster online collaborative and interactive engagement by African organizations on agribusiness, investment, human capital, and production data to promote policy design, targeted... More

“Young people are best placed to understand and clearly voice out issues that their fellow youth are facing”. This was the premise that the Restless Development and the MasterCard Foundation stood on to introduce the youth to youth-led research methodology. Under the methodology, young people were empowered to take the lead in all stages of the research process from question design... More

YPARD Ghana partnered the International Association of Agricultural Students (IAAS-Legon) in conjunction with consumer science students association to celebrate their 39th Green Week celebration under the theme: Redefining the role of Agricultural and Consumer Sciences through entrepreneurship and innovation from the 23rd February to 3rd March, 2018. During the career and job fair session, the Country Representative and members of YPARD... More

On the on 28th October, 2017, YPARD Ghana organized an Agribusiness Networking Cocktail event to facilitating networking opportunities and market for its members. To achieve this aim, the drinks, food and services for the event were sourced among YPARD member entrepreneurs. The event took place at the office of the African Agribusiness Incubation Network (AAIN) in Accra. The event was supported by the team at Trotro... More

YPARD Ghana seeks to accomplish its mission of creating a collective platform to enable young professionals in agriculture to realize their full potential and contribute towards innovative agricultural development. As part of efforts to accomplish this mission, the chapter has established its working group consisting thirteen (13) members comprising of the country representative, a programme coordinator, a communication focal person and... More

Blue Skies is world renowned for delivering the highest quality, freshest possible fruit products that are harvested at their optimal maturity, and prepared in the countries where the fruit is grown. Blue Skies’ network of factories employs over five thousand people in Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil and the UK. They process fruits and make fruit juice for retailers throughout the world.... More

The Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and The World Bank launched a programme to pilot the use of Principles Guiding New Investments in Agriculture in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, in 2015. The aim is... More

Youth unemployment has become the focus of most governments and development partners due to its adverse effect on migration, security and development. The agricultural sector with its wide range of activities offers a great opportunity for youth employment when well explored. Gathering information from the critical stakeholders of the framework thus the youth is a crucial element in tapping the opportunity... More

Africa has the youngest population in the world with over 92% of the youth represented among the extremely poor (ILO, 2015a). The youth population is expected to grow at an exponentially high rate, thus bringing forth the need to create between ten to twelve million new jobs in Africa per year until 2035 to absorb the new labour market entrants (UN,... More