The workshop on “Improving Agricultural Value Chains to Strengthen Competitiveness and Marketing” was held on 12 December 2013 in Ankara, Turkey. The workshop was jointly organized by the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MoFAL), United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). The workshop was attended by the relevant departments of the MoFAL, private sector companies, producer organizations, civil society and international organisations. SESRIC was represented by Mr. Mazhar Hussain, Senior Researcher, Research Department and Mr. Efe Kerem Aydın, Programme Coordinator, Training and Technical Cooperation Department thereat.

This multi-disciplined workshop aimed to train Turkish government officials and private sector representatives regarding the good international practices in the area of planning and improving agricultural value chains and to initiate establishment of pathways to result oriented studies to improve agricultural value chains. The workshop especially dealt with the following questions:

1. How to start and plan agricultural value chain development programs?
2. How to map and plan agricultural value chains?
3. How to analyse efficiency of agricultural value chains and increase their efficiency by streamlining and redesigning them?
4. How to prepare strategic growth and investment plans to improve efficiency of agricultural value chains?
5. How to determine financing instruments, options, sources and how to obtain and create these financial sources?