This document discusses the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and its goals of promoting agricultural research and development (ARD) to address issues like unemployment, food insecurity, and poverty among rural youth in Cameroon. It provides an overview of FARA's objectives, contributions, partnerships, outreach activities, results including some successful youth projects in food production, and statistics from its regional consultations. The document encourages further youth engagement and participation in FARA and related organizations to enhance ARD and ensure youth voices are heard.

1. Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
By:
NTIOKAM Divine, CR YPARD-Cameroon/
NGOUAMBE Nestor, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development/YPARD-Cameroon

2. DEFINITION of Rural Youth/ Communities
• Agricultural Research for
Development(ARD) is a process
through which marginalized youth
in this case will study and apply in
the field of farming to ensure
proper output
• About 70% of Food production in
Cameroon is assure by small scale
farmers where youths and women
contribute to about 60%
(Ngouambé, 2013)

3. ARD Objectives :
• Increasing scientific research;
• Reduce youth unemployment;
• Increase in output;
• Reduce Poverty and Food insecurity;
• Etc…

4. ARD Contribution(1/2):
ARD seeks to feed into the following processes
and support the End Poverty Campaign :
The national, regional and global
consultations on the post-2015 agenda;
The report of the UN Secretary General to the
UN General Assembly;
The UN General Assembly in September 2013;

5. ARD Contribution (2/2)
The intergovernmental process after the 2013
UN General Assembly.
• ARD will last for the lifetime of the post-2015
consultation process ….
• and will also develop an engaged constituency
to build global accountability for the next
development agenda.

6. The MY World survey is being disseminated
across the following channels (1/2):
1. ONLINE:
- Through the interactive web platform
www.ypard.net promoted through social media.
- 02 languages available: 6 UN Languages,
Indonesian, Thai, Portuguese, Korean, and
Albanian.
- Belarusian and Vietnamese work in progress.

7. The MY World survey is being disseminated
across the following channels (2/2):
2. OFFLINE:
- Through a grassroots outreach campaign in
partnership with CSOs, faith communities, youth
groups, private sector organisations and YPARD
country teams (35 members)
3. MOBILE:
- Via SMS or IVR (free phone number) in partnership
with mobile software developers and mobile
network operators at a country level. ( Still to be
launched

8. ARD PARTNER / Membership OUTREACH
ARD partner system has been set up for organisations ,
researchers, farmers to be able to register and join the ARD
platform and have access to:
 ARD tool kit to promote agriculture among young people in
their communities;
 Access to ARD discussion forum and blogs to share experiences
in ARD;
 Better understanding on how to Eradicate Extreme Poverty and
Hunger by 2015 and beyond;
 Etc…

9. ARD Priority Regions’ in Cameroon:
ARD’s initial focused is in 10 regions to 85% of the country`s
poorest people:
1. North West Region : Bamenda
2. West Region : Dschang
3. Littoral Region : Douala
4. East Region : Bertoua
5. Centre Region: Yaounde
6. Adamawa Region : Ngaoundere ,Banyo
7. South Region : Ebolowa
8. North Region : Garoua
9. South West Region : Buea,Limbe ,Muyuka, Kumba
10. Extreme North: Maroua

10. ARD RESULTS TO DATE (1/3)
1. Online:
Website www.ypard.net live in 02 languages (English and
French)
• Over 95 members from Cameroon
• Over 5 registered partners (IRAD, Plan, UNDP, Energy Globe)
• FB & Twitter account live and tweets by David Cameron,
Queen Rania, Mo Ibrahim and Juanes
• Website hosted/distributed by several organizations
including: Scouts, WAGGS, GCAP, ODI, YouthMob Brazil,
ONE Campaign, World Youth Alliance, ICMYO, Youth for
Habitat, Nike Foundation

11. ARD RESULTS TO DATE (2/3)
• Keys partner already involve in:
1. IRAD: agricultural Research Institute, supporting youth’s Research
project
2. Plan Cameroon, supporting minorities and sensitizing youth in
environmental education (Plants-for-Planet)
3. UNDP, supporting Youth initiative
4. National Youth Council, for Youth concertation
5. Project for improving Agricultural Competivitiveness (PACA-
MINADER), supporting rural youth Projects up to 60 000 US$

12. ARD RESULTS TO DATE (3/3)
2. Mobile: ( Still to be launched)
3. Offline Survey:
• North West Region : Bamenda
• West Region : Dschang
• Littoral Region : Douala
• East Region : Bertoua
• Centre Region: Yaounde
• Adamawa Region : Ngaoundere ,Banyo
• South Region : Ebolowa
• North Region : Garoua
• South West Region : Buea,Limbe ,Muyuka
• Far North Region : Maroua

13. Some Youth Acheivements (1/4)
Food production for food security
1.In 2011-2012, 5 youth groups in west-
Cameroon, have produced more than 250tons
of maize and 3 500 000 eggs.
2. In 2011 in Douala,3 groups of young men
successfully carried out a project for
producing 600 pigs (landrace, large white)

14. Some Youth Acheivements (2/4)
• Rural Youth living in Mbalmayo, Douala and
Akonolinga, are involve in the production of
compost manure with households wasteto
fertilize their crops

15. Some Youth Acheivements (3/4)
Existence of many youth’s innovative projects in
Cameroon
Cassawa processing project:
- « Ekiliwidi cooperative » based in South-West,
where 10 young women produce simultaneously
10 tons of gary and 2.5 tons os starches per week
using artisanal materials
- Youth innovationfor food security in Cameroon
(GIC SAC) produced last year 1750 tons of gary
(« Gary show »)

16. Some Youth Acheivements (4/4)
- 3300 packets Paste made with
Cassawa (« Miondonini)
19500 botles of juice made
With Cassawa (« gary light »)

17. Some Youth Acheivements (5/5)
• But these innovations needs a lot of support to
spread out…
• Modernized materials for their activities to be
able to satisfy increasing demands
• Technical and financial support are also need to
help those rural youth to acheive their micro-
projects

18. ARD Statistics – Results from Regional
Consultations(1/4)
• Agriculture Research Institute accross all regions
(50)
• Various youg professionals engage in ARD
activities (about 25 per region),
• More than 36 school of agriculture under
MINADER/MINEPIA supervision for youth,

19. Mobilization of youth duing the regional consultation
ARD Statistics – Results from Regional Consultations(2/4)

20. ARD Statistics – Results from Regional
Consultations(3/4)
• Yaounde: 26 participants
• Dschang: 10 participants
• Bamenda: 14 participants
• Bertoua: 10 participants
• Douala: 35 Participants

21. ARD Statistics – Results from Regional
Consultations(4/4)
• Information supposed to help the youths don’t always get
to them
• Dialogue platforms supposed to be for youths hardly even
involve them. When they are involved, they are hardly
given the opportunity to express themselves.
• Youths who want to even work in agriculture are not
motivated enough to enable them invest in their activities
as would be the case.
• Information about what others are doing for development
in other countries are not well known or taken into
consideration.

22. ARD NEEDS YOU
• YPARD is a key platform for ARD and has provided
instrumental support to establish the discussion forum …
• ……But more can be done.
• Let’s continue engaging rural youth across the nation in
enhancing ARD to enable their voices to be heard!
• So, get involve by participating to YPARD, FARA, AFAAS, ….
activities.

23. THANK YOU!!
Merci!!
If agriculture is the engine for Africa food security, youths
are the fuel to make it function well