6 months ago, Sabina and Nawsheen were taking the challenge to start a remote internship of around 10 hours a week with YPARD. Sabina, Tri-lingual Star! Sabina was working on translations of key documents, communications products and articles in English, French and Spanish. She benefitted of the supervision of French and Spanish mother language speakers able to reflect the texts within... More

On the 8th – 9th of October, The European Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (EFARD) Steering Committee (SC) Meeting took place at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, School for Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL). As the European Coordination of YPARD is hosted by HAFL, I’ve got the chance to participate the meeting as a substitute of Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu.... More

The Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2012) brought together all groups of stakeholders: from researchers to donors such as the FAO, EC or IFAD, to farmers organizations or the private sector. The surprise at the conference co-organized by GFAR and the CGIAR Consortium was the recognition of the role that young professionals play in AR4D. For the... More

“You will be surprised” is the logo written on the t-shirts of the bunch of youngsters at the GCARD2 pre-conference session of YPARD, which stands for Young Professionals’ Platform for Agricultural Research for Development. The leaders of the movement have reason to say so. Since its creation in 2006, YPARD has been acting as a platform for knowledge sharing for young... More

“Agriculture is an ageing and undervalued profession in many countries and special attention must be given to encouraging young people into careers in all aspects of AR4D...It is important that young people themselves help express what changes are needed in agricultural education and incentives to make careers more attractive and valued and better recognize the range of roles now required in... More

Last week I was representing the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to give the Inaugural lecture on ‘Animal production systems and markets in developing countries’ at INP Toulouse Purpan’s Eurama MSc in European Animal Management. Indeed, I have recently joined the Changing demand and market institutions Team at ILRI. I am particularly pleased that my second mission for ILRI was so... More

Dear YPARDians,  As food prices soar and, according to the World Population Prospects that the UN published in 2010, we will be 9.3 billion souls living on earth by 2050 (10.1 billion by the end of the century), it is time to set out on a journey to find the best solutions in order to ensure GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY.  At this... More

  Getting Youth involved at the GCARD2! Have you ever heard about the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2) to be held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, 29 October – 1 November 2012? The GCARD 2 will focus on the ways to implement the tasks identified in the GCARD RoadMap for enhancing agricultural research for development, with... More

Agriculture is important to the development of any nation, Nepal being no exception, based on small family farms that are mainly subsistence oriented and yet not capable of feeding the people and facilitating economic development of the country. Although, an agricultural product primarily comprises food grain with paddy being the most pervasively cultivated crop however, the food self sufficiency for farming... More

The Sixth Meeting of the Forum for the Americas on Agricultural Research and Technology Development (FORAGRO), which took place on 21-23 August 2012 in Lima, Peru, gathered a diverse group of participants and lecturers: agriculture ministers, directors of INIAs, directors of international research centers, university rectors and lecturers, senior researchers, representatives of the so-called Procis, leaders of producer groups, private sector... More

The 4th Agriculture and Rural Development Day (ARDD) was held on 18th June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The ARDD took place in parallel with the United Nation's Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. More than 500 participants attended the event comprising of high level policy makers, scientists, negociators, journalists, farmer organizations, civil societies and other stakeholders in... More

In the context of my country, Kenya, [which is] largely reliant on agriculture, sustainable development will work only if we empower our smallholder farmers [SHFs] on better ways to farm. One reason why there are constant food shortages even in arable areas is because our farmers still use rudimentary farming methods that can't work now, when farmlands are less and less.... More