Background:

Over 80% of Timor-Leste’s total population relies on subsistence farming. Rural farmers across the country are faced with considerable constraints, including poor climatic conditions, flooding and erosion, limited access to improved inputs and markets and limited knowledge of agricultural best practices. It is a common practice for farmers to save and store seeds for the next planting season, in particular for maize and rice – the main staples. It is also a tradition that seed and grain are stored together. However, limited knowledge and resources for effective post-harvest storage practice has led to high post-harvest losses and poor yields due to the use of low quality seeds for planting. In Timor-Leste context, seed system insecurity has been recognized as the underlying factor of food insecurity. An intervention that addresses seed system security issues in the country is essential to mitigate post-harvest storage losses of farm saved seed and to maintain better quality seed to reduce underlying risk factors of availability, accessibility and utilization of quality seed.

Summary:

USAID’s Effective Seed Storage Techniques Project designs and develops sustainable and scalable seed storage models for Timor-Leste.  Working with local manufacturers, Effective Seed Storage prepares the market for a new metal-based seed storage system.  In partnership with village agriculture extension officers, Effective Seed Storage trains farmers in better post-harvest seed saving in two districts: Ainaro and Manufahi.  

Key Project Objectives: 

• To ensure sustainable post-harvest protection of seeds and grain stocks and improve crop production and livelihoods in rural Timor-Leste
• USAID’s Effective Seed Storage Project designs and develops sustainable and scalable seed storage models for Timor-Leste.  Working with local manufacturers, Effective Seed Storage prepares the market for its new metal-based seed storage system.  In partnership with the suco (village) Agriculture Extension Officers, Effective Seed Storage trains farmers in better post-harvest handling techniques in two districts: Ainaro and Manufahi.  

Cumulative Achievements:

• 60,000 households extended their food self-sufficiency by 2.1 months per year, thus reducing the lean season by one third!
• Over 4,900 households have access to financial services.
• Seed losses decreased by 87 percent among those using improved storage.