Any one living in Dili will have noticed many changes in the city, but how about changes in rural areas?

Over the last six years the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries (MAF) and Seeds of Life (SoL) have tracked the assets of farmers engaged with the program in on-farm demonstration trials (OFDT).

Results shows that over the past six years, mobile phone ownership of these farmers has increased from 4% to 80% and motor bike ownership has increased from 0 to 40%.

Over the last six years the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries (MAF) and Seeds of Life (SoL) have tracked the assets of farmers engaged with the program in on-farm demonstration trials (OFDT).

MAF- SoL researchers will present this research at the Timor-Leste Studies Association (TLSA) Conference next week, along with 14 other papers looking at Timorese agriculture.

Topics include climate change in Timor-Leste, choosing new varieties such as bitter cassava, wild foods like elephant foot yam, and minor Timorese crops like wheat and barley.

MAF-SoL researcher staffs doing research on maize

TLSA was established in June 2005 to connect researchers with information, other researchers and research on Timor-Leste.

The TLSA is an interdisciplinary, international research network focused on all aspects of research into East Timorese society including politics and history, economics, communications, health, language and agriculture.

The TLSA Conference is on 15-16 July at the National University of Timor-Leste.