FAO Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division (AGS) is collaborating with The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and other partners in the organization of a major conference on value chains.

Under the name of “Making the connection: value chains for transforming smallholder agriculture”, this event will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between 6 and 9 November 2012 and is expected to attract over 400 participants. AGS will run two sessions, on the topics of “Sustainability: the search for green chains” and on “the role of producer organizations in value chains”. Other issues to be covered in plenary and breakout sessions include the impact of world consumption and trade patterns on developing country value chain development; how to make value chains more inclusive; enabling environments for successful value chains; contract farming; ICTs and value chains; value chain training and analysis techniques; governance; agro-processing and post-harvest; and employment issues.

You can now register to participate at the web site. Participants from all over the world will be welcome and, in particular, the organizers hope to attract many participants from the private sector to share their experiences. Interpretation will be provided between English and French.