Sorggum in glass house

In March 2010, seven researchers from Seeds of Life and the Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) visited the Hermitage research station of Warwick, Queensland.

The Hermitage research station is a leading center in breeding technologies for crops as diverse as sorghum, barley, sweet corn or mung bean. It is the third consecutive year that the partnership between SoL and Hermitage allows Timorese researchers to have a closer look to Australian farming and agricultural research. For most of them, it was also their first occasion to travel overseas. (more…)

Samples of cassava, laid out for HCN testing

Cassava was the flavour of the day when 18 local farmers attended a field day at Quinta Portugal Research Station on 16 October 2009. The farmers tasted samples of the 20 cassava varieties being trialled at Quinta Portugal, both as boiled cassava and as raw cassava, harvested straight from the field.

Farmer Adelina Amaral selected the variety Ca25 as her favourite. “I chose this one as the best because it is sweet to eat, it has a good tuber, it has a smooth texture, and it is big,” she said.

Seeds of Life (SoL) will use farmer feedback from the field day to assist in the selection of cassava varieties to test further in on-farm demonstration trials (OFDTs). The results from both research station trials and OFDTs allow SoL to determine which varieties are best suited to the agricultural conditions in East Timor, and which varieties local farmers are keen to plant in their own fields. (more…)

Researcher Rafael Feliciano with an Ai-luka 4 cassava plant

The East Timor Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) is pleased to announce the release of two new high-yielding, sweet cassava varieties, named Ai-luka 2 and Ai-luka 4.

The name Ai-luka was chosen by His Excellency Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, and comes from the Tetum Terik word for cassava. The even numbers indicate that they are sweet cassava varieties, suitable for eating. Odd numbers are used to name bitter varieties, which are for industrial use only.

The release of Ai-luka 2 and 4 is based on the results of extensive research conducted by the Seeds of Life program within the Division of Research and Specialised Services. More than 60 varieties of cassava were trialled throughout East Timor from 2001-2008. (more…)

Kristiana Mendonca (3rd from R) with family and Research Assistants Luis Pereira (2nd from R) and Armindo Moises (R)

The 450km Tour de Timor has taken cyclists through rice paddies in Baucau, corn fields in Viqueque, cassava plots in Manufahi, coffee plantations in Ermera, and wheat fields in Maubisse. Yes, wheat fields.

“There must be something very unusual in the climate of Timor to permit wheat being grown at so moderate an elevation,” Alfred Russell Wallace observed during his travels in East Timor almost 150 years ago. “The fact that potatoes and wheat of excellent quality are grown in abundance at from 3,000 to 3,500 feet elevation, shows what the climate and soil are capable of,” Wallace wrote in The Malay Archipelago. (more…)