Although Kenyan youths make up over 75 per cent of the country's population, farming is not considered an attractive option. This mentality has been entrenched in the education system that traditionally dooms the academically challenged to farming, otherwise known as the 'poor man's profession'. As a result, according to Kenya's agricultural ministry, the average age of a Kenyan farmer is 55.... Continue reading

Hunger v/s Food wastage Every day, we hear in the news that people in different parts of the world are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Nearly one billion people in the world go  to sleep hungry each night since they do not have anything to feed themselves due to several reasons (economic & food crisis, increase in food prices, over-exploitation of the... Continue reading

Machteld Schoolenberg has just ended 6 months of internship with YPARD. She was working 8 hours a week as Web4knowledge intern, remotely, from the Netherlands. She dealt with information management on the YPARD website and social media. Machteld will be particularly missed for her excellent communication skills and strong ability to familiarize herself with the different ICTs she had to use.... Continue reading

The YPARD coordinator, regional coordinator, and representatives for some Asian regions met in India in March, 2012 to formalise some of the activities for the region.  Some of the ideas that came out were as follows: Activities Learning Needs Assessment Working with different stakeholder groups to identify their capacity development needs.  These should be country specific (and more so, if possible).  This... Continue reading

YPARD - Young Professionals’ Platform in Agricultural Research for Development - wishes to contribute to the debate on change in formal higher agricultural education with integrating the views of young professionals. Indeed, the views of young professionals have not previously been included in discussions on curricula development. Therefore an YPARD study has been initiated in 2011. The report is now available... Continue reading

The session on 'engaging young people' brought out different people to share their experiences on how they engage young people in the agrifood sector in Africa. These are some of the ideas that came out of this session (to which YPARD also shared their experiences) during the Future Agricultures conference on youth, farming and the agrifood sector in Africa. When we... Continue reading

The YPARD Coordinator travelled to meet with the YPARD LAC coordinator at CIAT in Cali, Colombia.  The pair discussed strategies to build up the region, get more young people interested and activities that could propel the region ahead in 2012. Plans for the region include increased awareness, displaying the testimonials of young people in the LAC region active in ARD, linking... Continue reading

YPARD China representative, Jieying Bi, came to visit YPARD Global Coordination Unit at the occasion of her attending to the conference on International Scientific Symposium on Food and Nutrition Security Information, FAO, January 2012. Jieying Bi is research assistant at CAAS. She was nominated YPARD China representative by the end of 2011. Bi has worked on having an active China focal... Continue reading

The workshop on “Indigenous knowledge for a sustainable Agriculture” was successfully held on 17th of January, 2012. There were 58 participants including Agriculture Research and Production Assistants (ARPAs) and Agriculture Inspectors (AIs) from Matara District. Two resource persons were invited, Prof. Gamini Senanayake and Prof. P L G Alwis who are experts in the field and voice the importance of indigenous... Continue reading

I first entered the YPARD website in early 2011 through a link from CTA’s Knowledge for Development web portal which I explore often. I always see the YPARD logo/icon on the site but continued to ignore it since I did not know what doors it could open for me. After finishing what I was doing on that fateful day, a thought... Continue reading

Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, the YPARD center of Sri Lanka is organizing a workshop on 17th of January, 2012 on “Application of Indigenous knowledge for a sustainable agriculture”  from 9.00 am to 2.00 pm at the Agricultural Economics Auditorium. Local experts of the subject have been invited as resource persons. The workshop has been designed for young... Continue reading

CBO13113[RF] (c)www.visualphotos.com YPARD is building the YPARD Europe platform. The YPARD European platform is part of the YPARD Global platform, following the same vision and mission: to work for a sustainably improved livelihood, worldwide, through dynamic Agricultural Research for Development, by serving as a platform through which young professionals can express their ideas and realise their full potential toward a dynamic... Continue reading

  Official Launch of YPARD, in 2006, in New Delhi As we start 2012, YPARD will say thank you and goodbye to the last of the founding YPARD members who comes to the end of her term as YPARD steering committee member in January 2012.  YPARD began with a small, committed group of individuals who fought very hard to bring youth... Continue reading

YPARD is welcoming Nidhi Nagabhatla, the newest steering committee member. Nidhi is an Indian national, currently associated with the APEC- Climate Center in Korea working on climate change vulnerability and adaptation with real time climate data. She is a natural resource management expert with 12 years of multicultural and multinational experience in more than ten countries in Asia and Africa. She... Continue reading

  Dear platform citizens, this article summarily captures my experiences as a YPARD delegate to the International Conference on Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services that took place  Hilton Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya from 15-19 November, 2011.   WHY TURNING IN THE STORY LATE? This is one of the lessons learned from the conference; “Never wait till you get home before you... Continue reading

  Dear platform citizens, this article summarily captures my experiences as a YPARD delegate to the International Conference on Innovations in Extension and Advisory Services that took place  Hilton Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya from 15-19 November, 2011.   WHY TURNING IN THE STORY LATE? This is one of the lessons learned from the conference; “Never wait till you get home before you... Continue reading

Création d’une usine de transformation des fruits, construction d’un centre de conditionnement… Deux projets qui seront mis au point à l’horizon 2012 par l’Unité agro-pastorale du Cameroun (Unapac), un groupe majoritairement constitué de jeunes agriculteurs. Objectifs: accroître ses exportations de fruits vers l’Union européenne…Et créer des emplois.  A Loum (74 Km de Douala), l'Unité agro-pastorale du Cameroun (Unapac), un groupe d'initiatives... Continue reading

CACAARI Regional Brainstorming meeting Tashkent, Uzbekistan, November 29-30, 2011 YPARD attended the Central Asia and the Caucasus Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (CACAARI) meeting to discuss further engagement of youth in the region and particularly within CACAARI’s regional plan.   The CACAARI region covers the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Representatives of these regions were eager... Continue reading

Pouvez-vous nous présenter l'organisation Ypard? YPARD est un réseau de jeunes professionnels de moins de 40 ans qui travaillent dans la recherche agricole pour le développement dans différentes régions du monde. Nous cherchons à engager davantage les jeunes actifs vers des carrières touchant tous les aspects du secteur agricole.  Et il est important que les jeunes eux-mêmes soient sollicités pour qu’ils... Continue reading

The Young Professionals Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD) is seeking a new Steering Committee (SC) member from the private sector in agriculture to guide its strategic development.  YPARD serves as a medium for Young Professionals (YPs) in Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) to voice their views, exchange perspectives and work towards a more dynamic ARD.  YPARD has four strategic... Continue reading