The YPARD RAENS Café offered a relaxed but purposeful space for youth to share experiences and ideas around soil health, agroforestry, climate resilience, and agroecology-based enterprises. Through open, peer-to-peer conversations, young participants began forming connections and a shared vision for more sustainable agri-food systems.
At the World Soil Day Exhibition, youth showcased practical innovations already making a difference. Visitors engaged with a board game designed as an agroecology learning tool, farm produce from a YPARD member, and a mobile soil-testing gadget developed by a young innovator. With more than 260people attending the exhibition and over 70 visiting the YPARD stall, the event hilighted the real contributions youth are making to soil health and sustainable agriculture.
The training workshop in Mumbwa District focused on learning by doing. Young farmers built practical skills in soil health management, agroforestry, and biofertilizer making, helping them see clear pathways to strengthening and scaling their agroecological enterprises. Despite challenges linked to the rainy season, the workshop boosted confidence and opened opportunities for continued engagement and mentorship.
Together, these activities reached 42 young people directly, strengthened partnerships with research institutions and youth networks, and revealed new opportunities for youth-led services and enterprises from soil testing to biofertilizer production.
Zambia’s experience shows how agroecology becomes real when young people are trusted with space, skills, and visibility and how local action feeds into a broader regional movement.
By combining youth dialogue, public showcasing ofinnovations, and hands-on agroecology training, the Café translated RAENS’regional vision into practical, youth-led engagement on the ground. Itstrengthened youth participation in agroecology learning and knowledge sharing,connected young innovators with research and extension actors, anddemonstrated how local experiences in soil health, agroforestry, and enterprisedevelopment contribute to RAENS’ wider goal of building inclusive,transdisciplinary agroecology networks across Southern Africa.The Café produced two knowledge products highlighting youth-led agroecologylearning, enterprise development, and innovation pathways across ruralMumbwa and Urban Lusaka.
RAENS (Research for Agroecology Network Southern Africa) is a regional initiative that brings together farmers, youth, researchers, and practitioners to strengthen agroecology research, learning, knowledge sharing, and policy engagement across Southern Africa.
