Seeds of Life worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to deliver a record number of improved sweet potato planting materials, or cuttings, to the enclave district of Oecusse last Friday.

The 15,000 cuttings of improved varieties Hohrae 1, 2 and 3, the greatest number ever delivered in one go, were loaded onto the Nakroma ferry yesterday afternoon, arriving in Oecusse District at 6 am.

A second delivery will soon follow and Oecusse farmer will have planted 38,000 cuttings by the end of next week.

Early last week SoL put a call out to all district NGOs to help distribute leftover cuttings to farming families. Within days the Oecusse based NGOs BIFANO, CECEO and LOKAL AHCAE responded with numbers of farmers who would use the planting materials.

“I am so happy to work with these NGOs. We requested information and they responded very quickly, they are so active,” said Assistant Informal Seed Advisor, Wayan Tambun.

By 12 pm Friday the cuttings been distributed to 31 groups in 6 sucos, the entire process taking just one week.

Loading up the Nakroma ferry