The YPARD Conference was the opportunity to provide an overview of its activities in China and review topics of major import to youth in agriculture and in particular young professionals in agriculture. The conference attracted key professionals and technical experts in the field of agriculture. Ms. Bi Jieying YPARD China Coordinator welcomed the participants, quoting the President Xi Jinping that “the Chinese nation’s bright prospect on the road to revival is the China Dream”. Ms. Huang Jiaqi, YPARD China Secretary, provided an overview of YPARD and its activities in China.

 

Dr. Ajit Maru, Senior Knowledge Officer at GFAR, was the keynote speaker at this conference hosted at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) on “The Near Future of Agriculture: Opportunities for the Youth”. His presentation centered on Challenges in Agriculture including the urgent need to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty, feed 9 billion people in 2050, and adapt to climate change, diminishing natural resources and agricultural biodiversity.  He stressed the particular challenges to Young Professionals in Agriculture who must deal with the complexities of new agriculture in which resources have to be used in an eco-friendly and sustainable way, bringing in renewed agricultural knowledge services and technology-related enterprises that are global in scope and local in application.

 

Young professionals must think in terms of being: trans-disciplinarians, simultaneously Scientists, Innovators and Entrepreneurs, dealers in complexity, and internationalists. At the conclusion, he challenged participants with a quote from John Amatt: “Face new challenges, seize new opportunities, test your resources against the unknown and in the process, discover your own unique potential.”

 

Panel discussions at the conference addressed many issues: safe food production, challenges of the decline in resources, shift of interest from agriculture to other sectors, food networks and innovations to attract the interest of small farmers, information technology as a resource for the future, and eco–agricultural experimentation and technology development. The mixed audience of Chinese and international students also expressed concerns about the aging of farmer populations, lack of interest in agriculture among youth, and the constraints in the adoption of technologies by young smallholder farmers given the availability and accessibility of financial services.

 

Building on the discussion Professor Pan made a brief presentation on the structure and functionalities of the CIARD RING portal. In this regard Dr. Maru noted that the future would see the launch of more global services in the wake of the success of CIARD RING. He welcomed YPARD into CIARD RING adding that more open access resources need to be brought into the public domain. Finally, he noted that in a bio based economy everyone has a role to play.