Visit by the Minister of Agriculture
To the Fatumaca Maize Trial Site
Andre du Toit

Timor photos

We (the UH team in East Timor) were fortunate to receive a visit by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and his delegation of around 25 people. Because of time constraints, the Minister could visit only one trial site, Fatumaca. Fernando and I shared the presentation, as always Fernando was excellent. An observation of the Minister-our project approach is different from that of GTZ as we used only N in comparison to the common farmer practice of using both N and P. The Minister’s visit has given our work legitimacy at the MAFF office in Baucau. The Minister was pleased to learn of our plans for the dry land trials to address land use issues with plantings of pasture, corn, upland rice, and garden crops in adjacent plots. The visit indicated the importance of describing the essence of the project in just a few words or a slogan, and the following suggestion was made: this project will provide more food for your stomach, more money in your wallet in such a way that your children’s children still could live from the land. This will be achieved by empowering people’s minds and not by giving handouts in order to insure the future of the people of Timor-Leste.

After the visit we had a nice lunch at the Benifica restaurant in Baucau where the Minister, his group, the Baucau MAFF staff and the UH local staff could communicate in an informal way. The whole visit was less than 2 hours, but the interaction was highly productive and was truly a mutual learning experience.

back Return to News