PADANG CITY, Indonesia – Alexander Vargas, ATI Bicol Focal Person for the Farm Partnership Program, together with Roberto Diesta, 4-H Club President of Guinobatan, Albay, participated in the ASEAN-Dialogue Partners Exchange Farmers Visit on June 9-14, 2023 in the West Sumatra province of Indonesia.

Selected by the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI), Mr. Vargas and Mr. Diesta represented the Philippines and joined 28 other delegates from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, the United States, Taiwan, and Indonesia.

During the event, Mr. Diesta shared his knowledge and practices in agribusiness promotion, agricultural information, and technology. As an active youth leader, an agriculture scholar under the Youth Empowerment through a Sustainable (YES) Program, and a graduate of the Young Filipino Farm Leaders Training Program in Japan (YFFLTPJ), his talk emphasized the importance of the youths in agriculture, as well as the mentorship of ATI and the Local Government Units of Guinobatan and Albay Province, particularly the Municipal and Provincial Agricultural Offices.

The ASEAN-Dialogue Partners Exchange Farmers Visit was hosted by the Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Extension and Human Resources Development under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia. It is part of the Strategic Plan of Action on ASEAN Cooperation on Agricultural Training and Extension (SPA-AWGATE) for 2020-2025.