Future Agricultures is the UK Department for International Development funded learningconsortium comprising the Institute of Development Studies, Imperial College London and the Overseas Development Institute. The Consortium has been formed to stimulate debate and generate policy options for agricultural growth. The study focuses on three countries, namely Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi. As local partners of the Consortium the Ethiopia team was tasked with initiating policydebate through key informant interviews and where possible holding discussions in a form of workshops. The Awassa 2006 is one such workshop.

Organisation of the workshop. The Ethiopia team contracted a local NGO based in Awassa to organise the workshop. Participants were carefully selected from a range of institutions – government bureaus, nongovernment, research and academic institutions. A total of 22 individuals from Awassa and about 10 from Addis Ababa showed interest. However, a total of 21 participants (14 regional and 7 Addis Ababa) attended the one-day workshop. It was unfortunate that that all those registered could not attend because the workshop coincided with government meetings.