Opening new doors: YPARD Bangladesh partners with Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University

The Honorable Vice-Chancellor (VC) Professor Dr. Kamal Uddin Ahamed of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) at the Agriculture Information Institute (AII) of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) during the Memorandum of understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between SAU and YPARD Bangladesh on 10th October, 2017 in Beijing. 

He started the YPARD journey with SAU with this statement: “Now-days, every village is part of the global village and we are sharing technologies as well as disseminating information throughout the world. Agriculture is never been under a frame or inside a cage. We have to share with each other. Senior and junior professionals are engaged with the same system but at certain time seniors will leave the place for others. Today`s children are the fathers of the future. In near future, YPARD will be stronger and SAU will be in support to establish it on the ground in more active forms. I believe that there should be scope for senior professionals (over 40years) to interact with youths more closely through YPARD.”

This was my first detail introduction about YPARD (Young Professionals for Agricultural Development) which was briefed by Ms. Jieying Bi who is the regional coordinator of YPARD Asia and Pacific as well as Country Representative of YPARD in China. This organization is voluntarily working globally for young people to create a network to make agriculture more interesting among them and bring opportunities for their professional development. When Ms. Bi had finished, our Honorable VC has delivered his speech on the background of SAU and how it is playing a role in the national agricultural system as well as contributing to the agricultural research and development in Bangladesh. 

He also emphasized that agricultural development is necessary for Bangladesh and it is only possible through multi-national cooperation.In addition, he said creating networking platforms for professional skill development for young graduates and young professionals is important and should be encouraged. Moreover, he also agreed that to make agriculture more interesting it is necessary to bring the young generation into one platform to work in agriculture. He welcomed YPARD at SAU and appreciated the collaboration with a potential to create a new dimension in agriculture which will create innovation in this sector. 

Through this MoU, SAU will promote YPARD Bangladesh by increasing the  membership strength, through events or programs like, workshop, meeting, training, conference/symposium, research, campaign, competition, volunteering, advocacy and policy dialogues offline or online in SAU; fundraising and grant activities for different research and volunteering projects both nationally and internationally along with SAU; collaborate with other organizations for different activities, research, volunteering, and projects along with SAU, etc.

In the meeting, Ms. Lin Zhai, Division Chief for Multilateral Partnership at International Cooperation Department of CAAS who is a member of YPARD Steering Committee also appreciated this MoU and she suggested that students from Bangladesh could join at CAAS for MSc and Ph.D. studies. CAAS always welcome more collaborations in higher education and research in agriculture from Bangladesh.

Since 2013, YPARD Bangladesh is expanding the network and activities for developing skills of young professionals in the country. Their major activities are now to create opportunities for young people to participate in workshops, symposiums, seminars and conferences, both nationally and internationally. 

If any young professional joins in YPARD as member, the benefits are: networking with other members in the country and also with more than fifteen thousand members globally; it has knowledge and information sharing website where training to educational resources are available for free around the globe; more importantly members, will get regular updates and news-bulletins on jobs, internships, higher studies, scholarships, workshops, training course, conferences, events and funding news around the world. All these functions of YPARD in Bangladesh were presented by the F.M. Safiul Azam who is leading the country chapter in Bangladesh. He said that this MoU is a milestone for YPARD in the country and we are very much delighted by the presence of high-level delegates of SAU for this signing ceremony. 

YPARD delegates highly appreciated SAU for accepting the proposals of YPARD and offer from the University to support all necessary means for the activities around the country. Moreover, the Honorable VC has accepted to be one of the national advisors of YPARD Bangladesh. 

During this MoU signing ceremony, delegates of SAU which includes Professor Dr. M. Salahuddin M. Chowdhury, Professor Dr. F.M. Aminuzzaman, Professor Dr. M. Ariful Islam and Assistant Professor Hafizur Rahman were also present and participated in the discussion on the scope of YPARD activities at SAU. Moreover, Bangladeshi students of CAAS who are the members of YPARD were also present during the signing.

As a faculty and alumni of SAU, I hope that the journey of YPARD and SAU will be very exciting and will help in boosting the professional skills of youths and contribute to agricultural development.

 

Picture credit: Md. Abdul Kaium