YPARD welcomes Ivana Radic, YPARD Country Representative for Serbia. Ivana Radic fell into the field of agriculture at her first age : her mother was the manager of a big and successful agricultural cooperative, and later her father started running a pig and cattle farm. She entered the Faculty of Agriculture although this was not the path expected by people she... Continue reading

By Raymond Erick Zvavanyange Recently, I attended a roving seminar hosted by the University Of Zimbabwe Department Of Physics in association with Agromet Vision of the Netherlands from 19-21 March, 2013. The speaker was Professor C. Kees Stigter of the International Association of Agricultural Meteorology and Agromet Vision of The Netherlands. Previous seminars were held under the title "Operational Agrometeorology: Reaching... Continue reading

YPARD welcomes Meerim Shakirova as YPARD Country Representative for Kyrgyzstan. Meerim Shakirova was born and raised in Kyrgyzstan. When Meerim was 16, she moved to Moscow and started her active role in the international sphere, which has allowed her to play leadership roles as a global youth leader, climate change consultant and educator. Meerim has received scholarships from the Kyrgyz government... Continue reading

YPARD welcomes YPARD representative for Iran: Mohammadreza Davari. Mohammadreza Davari has completed his PhD degree in Agronomy from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in 2009. After completion of his education he has been engaging in research and teaching at university as well as in voluntary work with young in environmental NGOs. SabzAndishan Arak and Kimiyaye sabz are two of these NGOs (website... Continue reading

YPARD welcomes Keron Bascombe as YPARD Representative for Trinidad and Tobago. Keron Bascombe is a writer, blogger and budding agri journalist from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Currently he reads for a Msc in Agribusiness and Marketing at the University of the West Indies (UWI). However due to experiencing several other learning environments he is now set on a... Continue reading

by André-Daniel Stucki,(Bern University of Applied Sciences School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (HAFL) Usually it took me about half an hour to make my way from the Institute of Agroecology of the University of BaltI to the “Brigade”, the machinery section of the research Institute “Selectia” on the outskirts of the city. This way always included some traffic with... Continue reading

Urban farming in Kenya has moved beyond just being a poor man's profession. Can it even provide a solution to looming food insecurity? On a stroll through Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, one's eyes are drawn to a myriad of agricultural activities taking place. From a distance, greenhouses seem to sprout from any available piece of land and backyards. And that... Continue reading

YPARD is glad to announce the winner of the Seeing Thoughts contest! YPARD Seeing Thoughts video competition launched in 2012 was an attempt to capture and showcase the voices of youth and their contribution to agriculture for development, whether in research, in production or assisting a community to develop a sustainable livelihood. The contest was coupled with a learning process: the... Continue reading

The YPARD Steering Committee which was held in Rome February 22nd and 23rd, 2013 was a fruitful event, examining the activities and role of YPARD, strategy and the years to come.  A couple points of note were a new Steering Committee chair and a new name for the coordinator. New Chair YPARD would like to welcome Codrin Paveliuc-Olariu as the new... Continue reading

YPARD welcomes Olawale Ojo as the New YPARD Representative for Nigeria. You most probably know Olawale already, through YPARD Community Blog and Social Media, where he has been very active. Olawale was one of our “YP of the Month” last year, sharing his success story. He also belonged to the social reporters team at GCARD2; learn more about his experience. Olawale... Continue reading

It was an exciting experience to present during the sixth annual Ugandan fish farmers symposium on January 22nd, 2013. Youths’ participation during the symposium was vibrant. Some youths presented their innovations while others presented on behalf of their organisations. One of the aquaculture stakeholders at the symposium commended youth contributions saying that the youth of this generation presented a more practical... Continue reading

Agriculture in Nepal is still of subsistence but with the right policies and supportive investments at local, regional and national levels, agriculture offers new opportunities to move out of poverty. On the above background, the government of Nepal with the grant assistance ($18 million among total budget of $24.1 million USD) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has implemented Commercial Agriculture... Continue reading

Pan African Youth Conference on Learning for Sustainability was held at Silver Springs Hotel, in Nairobi, Kenya on January 30 to 31, 2013 The Conference brought together ‘young’ minds involved in sustainable development (SD) and green economy (GE) throughout Africa. The Conference theme was “Empowering Youths for Sustainable Development”. It was organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) programme... Continue reading

’’It finally came true’’, these were the words I said to myself as the activities of the day ended. Over the past months myself and another YPARD member in Kogi State Nigeria:  Apeh Omede who happens to also be a staff at  Kogi State University in the Department of Animal Production, had planned a YPARD Awareness with the support of YPARD... Continue reading

Le Burkina Faso est un pays très majoritairement agricole. Le secteur primaire, constitué par l'agriculture et l'élevage emploie presque toute la population rurale et une partie importante de la population urbaine. Entre 80 et 85% des Burkinabè travaillent dans le secteur primaire. Mais le faible rendement agricole, les méthodes archaïques et les aléas climatiques rendent cette partie de la population pauvre... Continue reading

I was invited to contribute through a guest commentary for the Chicago Council’s Global Food for Thought Blog on the importance of engaging/investing in youth in agriculture sector to alleviate hunger and poverty, given my experiences with YPARD.  The Global Food for Thought blog indeed provides a platform for expert commentary on international agriculture and food issues. This year, the Council... Continue reading

Farmland area in Iran is 11-13 million ha in which most of it can be classified as traditional farming systems which smallholder farmers are involved in for subsistence agriculture. Since many farmers in their small farms and gardens never use agrochemicals and use sustainable approaches for crop production during land preparation, crop nutrition, soil fertility as well as pest, disease and... Continue reading

Travel report from the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) 2013by Martina Graf, Coordinator YPARD Europe Berlin, minus 12 Celsius degree outside, when I dive into the crowd of ministers, students, NGO representatives, groups of delegates, investors, ambassadors from governments and lobbyists. They come together in the frame of “Die Grüne Woche”, which is the world's biggest fair for food,... Continue reading

I remember that moment I read Tega’s letter of motivation for YPARD Social Media’s internship position. It smelled creativity, dynamism, smartness and ambition. Tega finished his internship as the New Year 2013 was starting. He contributed to a significant increase of membership on YPARD Pages on social media: Facebook ( page and groupe), Twitter and Linkedin. Tega brought a number of... Continue reading

Ado Woldu (Aderajew) is our new YPARD Ethiopia National Representative. Aderajew Woldu is a graduate in Rural Development (B.Sc) from Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, since 2008. He was employed that same year at Haramaya University as a graduate assistant in the department of Rural Development & Agricultural Extension (RDAE) and carried on as an assistant lecturer, till the end of 2010.... Continue reading