A week ago, I was fortunate to speak at the latest Brussels Rural Development Briefings (Briefing number 49)* that took place at the ACP secretariat in Brussels, Belgium. The briefing focused on “Youth in Agribusiness: shaping the future of agriculture”. One of the key takeaways I took from the conference was that we cannot force … More Youth agribusiness in Africa: not just about knowledge, but action
Hectic yet reflective! The pilot GFAR-YPARD Young Agripreneur Project is coming to an end and in these posts, the six young agri-preneurs are pondering on their professional and personal journeys over the past twelve months. In April 2016, they all gathered in Johannesburg, where they thrilled the audiences at GCARD3 with their enthusiasm, drive and energy in describing … More Farewell to the Goofy Bug Guy
We had been driving around for days interviewing farmers in the remote and arid northern part of Burkina Faso. To get from one settlement to the next, it took hours: Hours of negotiating gullies cut deep into the sandy soil, with boulders washed onto what used to be a dirt road. The whole time, the … More Join GFAR’s webinar on “Farm Radio, Community Radio and Participatory Radio”
New studies released by CIAT and partners show that, given the vast amount of carbon stored our soils, small management changes could have tremendous impacts, offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. “We’re at the forefront of understanding how we can make the most of soils to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” said Rolf Sommer, principal soil … More Sink it or lose it: the carbon trade-off
Hectic yet reflective! The pilot GFAR-YPARD Young Agripreneur Project is coming to an end and in these posts, the six young agri-preneurs are pondering on their professional and personal journeys over the past twelve months. In April 2016, they all gathered in Johannesburg, where they thrilled the audiences at GCARD3 with their enthusiasm, drive and energy in describing … More Moving mountains, one jar of honey at a time
This year’s World Wildlife Day celebrates the theme ‘Listen to the Young Voices’. Its message is to mobilize the positive energy of the planet’s youth to call attention to the threats to wildlife. These include over-exploitation poaching or illicit trafficking. Engaging ‘Youth as agents of change’ to improve the world for our wildlife is a … More Youth as a Catalyst for Delivering on the SDGs – A connection we can’t afford to ignore
The more I read on youth mentoring, especially YPARD’s mentoring programmes, the more I got inspired and tempted to mentor young people. My visit to Nikki Chaudhary’s dairy farm in 2016, to witness first-hand her start-up in action, as a finalist of GFAR’s Youth Agripreneurs Project (YAP), was a pivotal moment in understanding the value of these mentoring … More Mentoring rural youth to make agriculture attractive
Hiwot Tirfneh regrets that she wasted water. She lives and farms in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, where drought is frequent and water is precious. She has never deliberately wasted water, but she only recently learned to harvest rain water to irrigate her crops. This knowledge—gained from a farmer program broadcast by Dimtsi Weyane Tigray—helped … More Radio for resilience in Ethiopia
GFAR partner LI-BIRD demonstrates the force of collective action in enhancing the resilience of rural communities Rampur, Dang, Nepal. A typical farming community in western Nepal, close to the fertile Terai plains. Yet like rural communities everywhere, the inhabitants of Rampur are facing challenges to their livelihood. Agriculture is largely subsistence-based and very volatile; alterations … More A South Asian Success story
This week marks the launch of the new CGIAR research portfolio. Izabella Koziell, Program Director, lays out the ambitions of the CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE). We face a familiar challenge Global food demand is growing and is projected to, by 2050, increase by at least 60% above 2006 levels. In … More Why is sustainability not yet second nature?
A new multimillion-dollar initiative plans to disrupt food production across the developing world, with the aim of making it more productive, efficient and resilient – all through the power of information. The CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture is jointly led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the International Food Policy … More The disruption starts now: new big data program promises to shake up agriculture
CGIAR has launched its new research portfolio, comprised of 11 Research Programs and 3 Platforms, that represents the second generation of CGIAR’s multidimensional work streams. The CGIAR Portfolio 2017-2022 aims to reducing rural poverty, improve food and nutrition security and improve natural resources and ecosystem services. It maintains momentum in selected areas while placing renewed … More CGIAR Portfolio 2017-2022 – Transforming global agriculture and food systems
The International Conference for Youth in Agriculture (ICYA) held from 27 to 30 April in Leuven Belgium was created in order to give space to young, bright and internationally active people to interact, discuss, learn and project their ideas into practical solutions that could inspire students all over the world to take action and adopt … More Sparking the Creativity of Youth at #ICYA
Changing the world with a single project. Wouaah. That’s big. I have seen a group of American students aiming to solve health problems in rural Belize. They came to a public school for three days. They taught yoga to kids who had never had any sport class at all. They planted vegetables that school’s cooks … More A peacock in a barnyard !
“Every step counts. Every talent finds a place.” – M. Hartl (IFAD) on her training session at ICYA 2017 After finishing a bachelor degree in international economics, I turned down a promising job offer and decided to take a year off. When I told my parents I would go to Germany to study agriculture, they … More Of mothers, wives, and farmers
GFAR is pleased to invite you to the webinar: Farmers’ Rights: Achieving Complementarity Between the Informal and Formal Seed Systems Date: 30 May 2017 Time: 15:00 Rome time (GMT+2) Duration: 2 hours max Registration open As one of the series of GFAR webinars, GFAR Secretariat is bringing together several presenters to engage the agri-food research … More GFAR Webinar- Farmers’ Rights: Achieving Complementarity Between the Informal and Formal Seed Systems
Ajit Maru, GFAR’s Senior Officer, reports on his participation in an interesting workshop in India where GFAR’s and APAARI’s primary objective of transforming agricultural research and innovation systems was illustrated in practice by SDAU, a GFAR and APAARI partner! How to double real incomes of smallholder family farmers and marginal farmers who have less than … More Doubling Farmer Incomes in Five Years
‘My name is Sandhya, I am studying Sustainable Management of Natural Resources in Suriname. I am currently doing an one year exchange program at Ughent to study agriculture courses of my choice. These fundamental courses are not available in Suriname.’ As I introduced myself at the social media bootcamp preceding the #ICYA2017 conference, I felt … More How to avoid youth getting involved in agriculture?
Once upon a time, I was the youngest at any work-related event. Now, it seems, most of the time, I am always the oldest in the room. 🙂 I spent last week with a hundred people less than half my age. And they inspired me. I just came back from ICYA2017, the International Conference for … More I feel inspired!
Youth really are the future of agriculture. GFAR is committed to youth through many projects we do. One of them is YAP, our Youth Agripreneurs Project, where we encouraged young agricultural entrepreneurs to submit their projects (early last year). Through “YAP”, our purpose was not only to find some genuine innovative projects we could sponsor, … More Josine’s journey, as a young agri-preneur
