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Highlights

Switch your eyes and ears off, for a moment, to the on-going discourse about agriculture as an “ageing sector” that doesn’t attract the youth anymore. Instead, step into YPARD: a vibrant international network of young professionals for agricultural development, which counts thousands of members all around the world,

We are living in an era in which rapid urbanization has led to a decline in rural populations, and for the first time ever the majority of the world’s population lives in a city. The UN World Health Organization predicts that “by 2030, 6 out of every 10 people will live in a city, and by 2050, this proportion will increase to 7 out of 10 people”. This means that more young people than ever before are moving to cities and towns to find work, leaving few behind to work in rural areas.

“Young scientists need to take part in policy debates and discussions about agricultural research for development!” So claimed a group of young agriculture professionals in 2005. They wanted to create a global network through which young professionals could be given a voice and contribute towards agricultural development. 10 years later YPARD has become a worldwide collective platform with over 10 000 members from 168 countries.

Every year, thousands of small-scale farmers in Kenya generate income by growing crops for the export market. But they are scattered all over the country and it is often an uphill task for exporters to keep track of their farming processes. Yet, continuous monitoring of contracted farmers is important to ensure exported products meet quality standards. To address this, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) recently introduced a mobile and web application called Farmforce—the first of its kind worldwide—that makes it easy for exporters to monitor and make follow-ups on the operations of contract farmers.

At this month’s 2014 AGRA Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund, agricultural experts noted that the effective roll out of such technologies can increase the value of marketed agricultural produce which is currently at Sh334.7 billion based on the 2014 Kenya Economic Survey.

Today, the average age of an American farmer is 58.3 years, an increase of 8.3 years since 1980. The steady rise in average farmer age over the past three decades underscores the need to bring new farmers into the U.S. agricultural sector.

To help attract the next generation of American farmers, Congress created the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), the only federal program that focuses on training the next generation of farmers and ranchers. BFRDP operates as a federal grant program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), that provides funding to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions to establish new farmer training programs.