by Courtney Paisley

Agriculture is changing, and with it, a revised set of skills is needed to address new challenges in agriculture. A number of prominent documents point to professionals in Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) with different characteristics than the ones universities ‘develop’ at present. The ‘new professional’ should, for example, be better able to work across different disciplines and in partnership with different stakeholders.

YPARD has contributed to this debate by bringing the voice of the youth to the table, their views and their experience.  Including a diverse set of stakeholders’ views provide a more comprehensive view to inform educational policy makers to modify the ‘recipe’ to enable educational institutions to ‘produce’ a young professional that can contribute to a sustainable and effective ARD with a more relevant set of skills.