APO yesterday commenced its five-day Workshop on Sustainability Assessment of Agribusiness Enterprises in Bogor, Indonesia. The workshop is being attended by 17 participants from 14 member countries and seven local Indonesian participants besides five resource persons.

The workshop from 28 November to 2 December 2016 is being organized in association with the country’s Agency for Agriculture Extension and Human Resources Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and the Directorate General of Training and Productivity Development under the Ministry of Manpower.

The session began with the opening remarks by Agency of Agriculture Extension and Human Resource Development Executive Secretary Dr. Momon Rusmono. Director of Bureau for Agricultural Training, Ministry of Agriculture Widi Hardjono and APO Program Officer Mitsuo Nakamura gave the welcome remarks for the workshop that aims to review different models, standards, and approaches for assessing sustainability of agribusiness enterprises and their applications based on the socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of operations.

The workshop also aims to promote the adoption of principles of sustainable development of farm and agribusiness enterprises, particularly the SMEs in Asian countries. It also aims to formulate strategic action plans to promote the sustainability of agribusiness enterprises and to contribute towards achieving the targets of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

The resource persons include Sustainable Food Systems GmbH General Manager (CEO) Moritz Teriete, Ngai Tahu Research Centre, University of Canterbury (New Zealand) Senior Research Fellow Dr. John Reid, Asia-COSA (Committee on Sustainability Assessment) Regional Research Coordinator Dr. Gayatri Ramnath, PT. Eco Regions Indonesia Vice President Emmy Hafild, and Faculty of Economics and Management, Bogor Agricultural University Lecturer Dr. Ir. Lukman Mohammad Baga.