Agriculture has been and will remain a key component of our efforts to reduce global poverty and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The role of young people in agriculture, as future leaders, researchers and agricultural entrepreneurs requires however more thought. A sharp decline is obsenyed in the interest of youth.to pursue an academic or professional career in agriculture and rural development. It is therefore vital to retain or rekindle interest in agricultural sciences; else, the system will face a critical shortage of agricultural scientists.
The training and promotion of young professionals has, however, often little impact on development because of brain drain, and because of lacking resources and institutional settings that hinder the development of young professionals in the South and East. The Young Professional Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD) aims to address these constraints and problems through a variety of activities.
The mission of the YPARD is to serve as a global platform through which young professionals can express their ideas and realise their full potential towards a dynamic agricultural research for development. This means that YPARD wants to mobilize young professionals in Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) towards multi-stakeholder values, contributing to the agricultural education curricula reform, voicing the challenges faced by young professionals in ARD, and contribute to the solutions for those challenges. Its goal is to increase the contribution of young professionals to Agricultural Research for Development. YPARD also intends to help adapt actions of the international organizations to the needs and the cultural habits of young people having their roots in different cultures and to build a bridge, with equal opportunities, for all youth professionals involved in ARD activities.
The YPARD works with a number of international, regional and regional partners well known to us by our strategic involvement in and support of the international agricultural scene and in particular the research for development part. The initiative is hosted, by the University of Hannover which provides office space and administrative support, and employs the coordinator of the YPARD.
The need for YPARD cannot better be described than by its first achievements. After its successful launch in 2006 and one year of implementation the YPARD consists now of 2200 members and is being recognised by more than 25 international and national organisations/institutions. It has participated in several international meetings and made substantial contributions towards the achievement of its objectives. Among others, YPARD has influenced larger organisation in the way that young professional programmes have become a important component in their new strategies for ARD.
