TIM LEE
Of the many hundreds of aid organisations which have worked in East Timor during the past decade, none are more elemental or effective than Seeds of Life.
ROB WILLIAMS
Seeds of Life aims to do two things. One is to increase the yield on farm. The second most important aim is to train East Timorese researchers, East Timorese scientists, to a level that they can solve their own agricultural problems so they can do research that assists their farmers.
TIM LEE
The four months from the end of the dry season until the new wet season crops can be harvested are called the hungry months. For most rural people, these are the leanest times. Often the only food is a form of corn meal.
GIRL FARMER
Yeah, in East Timor, the main food that they eat every day are corn and rice. First, they dry it and after that they take it and they pound it because they want to make a little bit softer. After pounding, they clean it and they will cook… (Speaks indistinctly). Sometimes they mix it with beans and peanuts and sometimes they mix pumpkin and some vegetables, so they can feel better in eating.
Woman pours basket of grain into pot
TIM LEE
Though these few grains of corn are the family's very last reserves of food, they share it with us w
ithout hesitation. It will be several months before the wet season crops will bring fresh produce. In the meantime, the family must rely on buying food with the meagre income derived from their roadside store. But the coming season promises far more corn. For the first time, the people here will have access to two far superior corn varieties, courtesy of Seeds of Life. In East Timor's Aileu District, one farmer proudly shows us his flourishing corn crop. Senor Zacharias Mosina Gusmao took a punt planting his corn near the end of the dry season.
GIRL FARMER
He says that this get high-yielding and also big crops, and so he's very interested because in the dry season he planted to get the early yield.
Shots of immature corn plants
TIM LEE
That's why there are multiple stalks. Some might wither, he reasoned, but some would survive. Happily, the crop is thriving due to unexpected early rains and irrigation water, delivered by a foot pump supplied several years ago by an aid agency. This variety is known as Sele, the word for 'corn' in local dialect. Sele is one of the two new corn varieties introduced, tested and released by Seeds of Life in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture.
TRANSLATION, SONG
To water and make green the land, giving life to everything.
TIM LEE
Senor Gusmao is on track to cash in by selling fresh sweet corn for the Christmas market.
TRANSLATION, SONG
The sun shines upon the land, reflecting upon the water.
TIM LEE
Landline viewers first learnt of Seeds of Life in 2006.
ROB WILLIAMS
Seeds of Life was necessary for a number of reasons. The first reason is that the yields of the main food crops in this country, particularly maize, hasn't increased over the last 20 or 30 years. The average yield has hovered around 1.5 tonne per hectare over that period, while the rest of the world's maize yield has almost doubled.
TIM LEE
Back then, agronomist Rob Williams and his team were testing varieties which they knew held promise.
ROB WILLIAMS
When you were here last, we thought we had varieties suitable to East Timorese farmers. We've since tested them with 2,000 or 3,000 East Timorese farmers, seeking their opinion — do they like it? Do they produce high yields? Can they store it? Does it eat alright? If they sell it at the market, do they get a good price? Many questions we've asked about each variety.
TIM LEE
From hundreds of hopefuls, nine varieties of staple crops have so far been chosen for release — rice, sweet potatoes, cassava and peanuts. The next step is building up enough quantities of seed to try to meet the overwhelming demand.
Farmers feed grain into seed-cleaning machine
TIM LEE
This newly installed seed cleaning machine in Baucau Province to the east of the country has revolutionised the process.
ROB WILLIAMS
We've tested these new varieties on thousands of farmers. As a result this last year, we distributed about 100 tonnes of seed in five-kilogram lots that have gone out to more than 20,000 farming families. So we are starting to have a large impact on farming families in East Timor.
Tim Lee stands in rural village, holding small bag of maize
TIM LEE
It's hard to concede that just one bag of maize seed like this can be so vital. But in this young nation where the average wage is just US$1 per day, something like this is helping to break the chains of hunger.
ROB WILLIAMS
Those varieties are public domain varieties, which means the farmer can plant them, keep the seed and plant them again next year.
TIM LEE
The Baucau region has rich red volcanic soils and unlike most of the country, has flat rolling plains. Today Rob Williams is the guest of honour at a field day. This crop is a new variety of sweet potato grown on a one-hectare plot of community land which has been fenced to keep out wandering livestock such as cows, pigs and goats. Some of the farmers are sceptical of what it might yield. There's not a lot of growth above the ground but the tubers are very impressive. Early results suggest crops of 18 tonnes per hectare — that's double the traditional varieties, but on par with world standard. There's no more effective advertisement for the new superior varieties.
Farmers hold up freshly harvested sweet potatoes
TIM LEE
These sweet potatoes are being sold in the capital, Dili, and for the first time, families here have disposable income. Some say they'll now be able to send their children to school and most want tractors which can break the limestone-encrusted soil far easier than metal hoes. Outside the office of the Minister for Agriculture, some shiny newly imported tractors are ready to roll. But this number can only meet the needs of a handful of districts. The minister says his most pressing duty is overcoming rural poverty.
MARIANO ASSANAMI SABINO
How to realise the dream of the majority of people in Timor-Leste? We fight for independence and continue fight how to reduce poverty in Timor-Leste.
TIM LEE
Crucial to the success of Seeds of Life are locally trained staff.
ROB WILLIAMS
We currently have a group of 40 young researchers, mostly graduated from the University of East Timor as agronomists, and we've taken them on board and trained them in many skills. Some never knew how to ride a motorbike when they started with Seeds of Life. An important part is getting out to the farm, working with farmers, riding motorbikes. Some now can interview in English, they can go out and run a field day by themselves, they work with farmers testing the new innovations, they can conduct their own research experiments and then analyse those to choose the best varieties for their own country.
TIM LEE
Four years ago, Luis Perriera was one of those trainees, now his work centres on the Maubisse region in the country's central highlands. Seeds of Life annually evaluates about 700 new plant varieties at trial sites across East Timor. Luis Perriera says farmers are quick to embrace the new varieties.
TRANSLATION, LUIS PERRIERA
The farmers really like it. I've been working with them for the last two years in this district. They can see with their own eyes that the yields are better and they prefer to keep growing the new varieties. The farmers themselves will be producing more seeds so that they can grow their own seed in future years.