In largely rural Timor-Leste, women and young people make up a large proportion of the population. But they aren’t always represented at the country’s highest levels of research, planning and leadership. Now, efforts by AI-Com are taking steps to ensuring women and youth have the skills and opportunities to engage in agriculture research at all …
Passing through a quiet village in Timor-Leste’s rural west you’ll see gaggles of children playing in the scrub and grass by the sides of the roads. Shaded by papaya trees and tracing lines through tall home-garden corn stalks, they’ll chatter and giggle, and race tyres through the dust. They’ll likely look younger than they are. …
AI-Com supported researchers have this week begun experiments to test novel ways of encouraging sandalwood seed germination, in order to grow more and healthier trees. While sandalwood is endemic to Timor-Leste, and grows wild, it can be difficult to germinate the seed quickly. Sandalwood seeds are designed to germinate a few at a time, some …
Since AI-Com launched in April 2017, together with our partners we have: Conducted 256 training days Worked in six districts With 12 different crops And 14 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries researchers Together with three universities 11 lecturers 23 university students (six of them female) Distributed 1,200kg of the organic fertiliser biochar Scattered approximately 7,500 …
Mung beans, red beans, cassava and corn: staple crops grown in thousands of households all over Timor-Leste, making regular appearances on dinner tables for generations. And in that time, little has changed in how they’re farmed. But new research may have revealed an innovative way of growing mung beans differently – unlocking new opportunities for …
New results from AI-Com’s baseline survey show that up to 96 per cent of farming families in some areas of Maliana are interested in growing sandalwood, a valuable tree native to Timor-Leste whose population was plundered during the Portuguese colonial period. “It has a nice smell and it’s a good source of income,” was …
AI-Com researchers were pleased to share promising results from the project’s baseline survey at last month’s project results meeting and book launch at Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Conducted in October 2017 in Ritabou village in Maliana sub-district of Bobonaro municipality in Timor-Leste’s west, the survey aimed to collect information to inform AI-Com’s …
Experiments conducted by student researchers in Vermasse have shown that a new organic fertiliser, rice hull biochar, increased yields of tomato, chilli, sweet corn and mung bean by an average of 160 per cent, a tremendous increase.
The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Estanislau Alexio da Silva, has today launched a new publication from AI-Com documenting tree species suitable for planting together with sandalwood, the highly valuable tree native to Timor-Leste.
A group of 10 university student researchers will today unveil their results from experiments conducted at Vermasse, in Timor-Leste’s Baucau municipality, completed as part of their agriculture studies at the National University of Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL).