Addis Abeba — The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) and Oxfam GB are hosting a National Agriculture learning event from 17-19 November 2009 here in Addis Ababa.

At the event regional government representatives from Amhara, Oromiya and Benishangul Gumuz will participate, together with research organisations, members of the private sector, multilateral and bilateral organisations and national and international NGOs, in discussing the importance of smallholder agriculture, women's economic empowerment, value chain development and private sector linkage, Oxfam GB said in a statement.

"Furthermore, smallholder farmers and representatives of Oxfam teams from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Oxford, will be in attendance to share their experiences with models of change, challenges and opportunities for smallholder agriculture. Talks will also focus on exploring opportunities for scaling-up in collaboration with stakeholders." The agency said this initiative, "which is the first of its kind", will be opened by State Minister of Agriculture who has agreed to support this multi stakeholder forum with the long-term aim of sustaining it as a national activity under the leadership of MoARD.

Accordingly, the broader aims of the workshop are to learn about the operational challenges to supporting smallholder agriculture as well as strengthening dialogue among stakeholders on smallholder agriculture.

Since Agriculture is the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy, the Government of Ethiopia has given due importance to the agricultural sector through its policies such as ADLI and PASDEP. Considering the importance of the sector, many organisations in Ethiopia have focused their development work on agriculture.