Seeds of Life has established a weather station in Oecusse that readers can access for up to date data on rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind speed and radiation.

The weather station updates every 3 hours and is the second of its kind in Timor, with the first being established in Atauro in January.

You can access the link by clicking here or through the Climate Data page of the Climate Change section of our website.

Seeds of Life worked together with the National Directorate of Meteorology and Geophysics and the Department for Agriculture Land use and Geographic Information Systems to set up the new station.

The new development comes after SoL’s program launch in the Oecusse district in April.

Oecusse’s hungry season can be quite long and each year the majority of farming households face 3-4 months of food insecurity when food stocks run out and the next season’s crops have not yet been harvested.

The communities are enthusiastic and the farmers are interested in improving their capacity

This problem is compounded by transportation issues in the district.

“There are 19 Suco Extenstion Officerss working with farmers in 18 Sucos in Oecusse but not one of them has access to a motorbike. This is one of our biggest challenges that we’ll be looking to solve soon,” SoL’s Community Seed Production Advisor, Buddhi Kunwar, said.

But there are many opportunities for increased food production in the enclave too, the communities are enthusiastic and the farmers are interested in improving their capacity.

Oecusse is the 11^th district in SoL’s program. SoL plans to cover all 13 districts supporting at least 1000 Community Seed Groups.

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Timor-Leste

Location:    Based in Maliana, District of Bobonaro.

Duration:    32 months

Commencement date:    10 June, 2013

Closing date for applications:     24 May, 2013

Remuneration:    A competitive package will be offered

Description of the organisation:    

Seeds of Life (SoL) is a program within the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) in Timor-Leste (East Timor).  The third phase of Seeds of Life (SoL III), 2011-2016, aims to improve food security in Timor-Leste through increased productivity of food crops.  The Governments of Timor-Leste and Australia collaboratively fund the program.  Australian funding is provided through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and is managed by ACIAR.  The Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) within The University of Western Australia (UWA) coordinates the Australian funded activities.

SoL III consists of a team of more than 80 professional Timorese staff plus 10 international advisors.  There are three regional advisors (RAs).  This RA position is based in the District of Bobonaro.  Frequent travel to Dili will also be required.  The RA will work with the Director and staff of the District MAF office and the SoL advisors for research, formal and informal seed production.  The RA will report to the SoL Australian Team Leader (ATL).

General description of position

The Regional Advisor will:

Establish and maintain a close primary counterpart relationship with the Director of the MAF Office in Bobonaro and three other districts in the west of the country;

Play a lead role in coordinating the implementation of Program activities at District level, providing an operational interface between the Program and the Districts.

Key tasks and responsibilities

The Regional Advisor will:

Establish a close working relationship with the Directors of the District MAF Offices as primary counterparts, and actively guide and mentor staff of the District Offices involved in the implementation of Program activities in the west of the country.

Advise and support MAF district staff involved in implementation of the on-farm trial and demonstration program under Component 1.

Advise and support MAF district staff involved in planning and managing the multiplication and distribution of formal seed under Component 2.

Advise and support MAF district staff involved in establishing Community Seed Production Groups (CSPGs) as a means of increasing production of informal seed, under Component 3.

Provide support for the development of Formal Seed Marketing Groups (FSMGs), focal seed merchants, and farmer to farmer seed exchange as mechanisms for helping to promote the market-based distribution of improved seed, under Component 3.

Support the implementation of targeted capacity building activities designed to support the professional development of MAF staff at district and sub-district levels. This will include but not be limited to:  developing the capacity of OFDT Coordinators to manage the OFDT program;  developing the capacity of MAF district-level extension staff to plan and manage seed distribution activities;  developing the capacity of subdistrict extension staff and Suco Extension Officers to ensure that distributed formal seed is used in the most effective manner by recipient farmers; and developing the capacity of subdistrict extension staff and SEOs to support the establishment and operation of CSPGs.

Facilitate field evaluation activities of the M&E/ SOSEK Unit.

Assist with the dissemination of improved variety technical and promotional materials.

Assist with the organisation of improved variety mass media campaigns at district-level.

Provide inputs as required to Program reports and monitoring activities.

Skills and Experience

(Qualifications/Experience/Skills/Knowledge)

The successful candidates will have:

Essential

• A degree in agricultural science or equivalent.
• Demonstrated understanding of and some experience in the application of research and extension methods in a developing country.
• Previous work experience in SE Asia.
• Strong communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work as part of a team.
• Willingness to work independently in remote and isolated areas.
• Fluency in English and at least basic proficiency in either Tetun, Bahasa Indonesia or Portuguese.

Desirable

• Experience in Timor-Leste.
• Training or capacity building experience.
• Management experience.
• Post-graduate qualifications in agriculture.

Apply:

Interested candidates can submit a short covering letter, CV, names of three referees and a document addressing the required skills and experience electronically to Dr Harry Nesbitt, Adjunct Professor, University of Western Australia (h.nesbit@bigpond.net.au).  Further enquiries can be addressed to Professor William Erskine, tel. (+61 8) 6488 1903.  Information on the Seeds of Life program is available at http://www.seedsoflifetimor.org/ .

Seeds of Life likes to say that ‘food security starts with seed security’, and every day, we work to make Timor-Leste secure in seed and food. But for many people, the concept of food security itself is a foreign one, so here’s a brief rundown on what food security means and what it means for Timor-Leste.

To oversimplify the topic, people are food secure when they don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.

At the 1996 World Food Summit it was agreed that food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life.

Food security around the world

Global food production has increased substantially over the past few decades. However, this increase in production has not equaled population growth for the same period.

Furthermore, a number of factors have contributed to dramatic food price spikes, which in turn contributed to the food crisis of 2008.

Some of the many cited causes of continuing food insecurity are the rising price of oil, climate change, failed agriculture regulation, a lack of anti-dumping mechanisms and a lack of market access for farmers.

Food security in Timor-Leste

There are two major discussions around food security in Timor-Leste. One focuses on urban populations, such as in Dili and Baucau and concerns the importation of and access to cheap rice.

The second discussion, and the one that Seeds of Life works to address, is rural food security. Rural food security is all about the sufficient production of rice and maize among farmers.

Rural food insecurity in Timor-Leste is classified as seasonal. That is, farmers experience a ‘hungry season’ while their rice and maize crops are growing but cannot yet be harvested.

There are two phases of food shortage in Timor-Leste. The first is when maize and rice stores are about to finish but there is still a supply of root crops, like cassava and sweet potato.

Consumption of food during this phase drops to 1-2 meals a day for adults and 2-3 meals a day for children.

The second phase occurs when all staple crops are in short supply, this is known as the ‘hungry season’ and many farmers rely on foraging, borrowing or selling animals and assets for food.

The second phase occurs when all staple crops are in short supply, this is known as the ‘hungry season’

Households at risk of food insecurity in Timor-Leste are those that grow insufficient maize throughout the year and cannot afford to buy more when they run out. Our annual surveys have shown that as many as 1 in 3 households are at risk.

However, in recent years this number has been declining by around 5.4% per annum. This same drop has been shown to correlate with an increase in wealth over the same period.

What else can be done to make Timor-Leste food secure?

Seeds of Life is working to improve food security by researching and releasing improved, public domain varieties of seed and planting materials, the use of which can increase farmer’s yields by as much as 138% in one stroke (as with sweet potato variety Hohrae 3).

The Ministry of Agriculture is working to increase agricultural productivity, recently through an increase in extension services. There are now over 400 Suco Extension Workers in Timor-Leste providing advice and assistance to farming families.

In the future MAF-SoL and other agricultural organisations will be focusing on improving soil fertility, post-harvest storage, water security and land preparation and weeding techniques.

All of these improvements will go towards increasing food security and improving the lives of Timor-Leste’s farming families.