IBSA Fund Annual Report- Timor-Leste

Partners

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries; Naterra Association; Conservation International; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Timor-Leste

Overview

This project promoted the adoption of sustainable production techniques and the intensification and diversification of smallholder farming and fishing systems.

Key achievements

• 1,600 smallholder farmers and fisherfolk adopted conservation agriculture, permaculture and sustainable co-fisheries management techniques.
• 2 national policies incorporated conservation agriculture and sustainable land management issues, and 3 sustainable co-fisheries management plans were adopted by stakeholders.
• 1,132 packages of farm tools and agricultural inputs were procured and delivered to farmer field school participants for the testing, validation, replication and scaling up of conservation agriculture practices.
• Increases in yields from conservation-agriculture demonstration plots ranged from 26 to 58%.
• 1,386 farmers, teachers, students, community leaders/work assistants, and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries NGO extension workers were trained in permaculture techniques.
• Seven sets of agri-food processing equipment, tools, containers, packaging materials, etc. were procured, delivered, installed and operational.

Challenges

Conservation agriculture has proven to be a successful approach not only for food security and nutrition but also for disaster risk reduction and the building of climate resilience, as demonstrated by the survival rates of maize and legumes during the 2015–2016 El Niño drought (except for the worst-affected areas of the north Lautem coastal plain).

Link of the Project to National Priorities

This project contributed to the “economic development” pillar of the Strategic Development Plan, 2011–2030, of the Government of Timor-Leste, which includes “improved food security, reduced rural poverty, a transition from subsistence farming to commercial farming of crops and promotion of environmental sustainability and the conservation of Timor-Leste’s natural resources”.