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RICE |
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Maize and rice are the country's main staple
foods..... MORE
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FORESTS |
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EAST TIMOR has a total forest area of 1.4 m ha..... MORE
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| Plant Production |
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Timor-Leste has 14,916 sq km (1.49 M ha) of land but the general
topography is mountainous. Land suitable for cultivated crops is
very small consisting largely the alluvial flat lands or coastal
plains. Production of staple food crops, rice and maize, dominate
the agricultural systems in Timor-Leste. The estimated production
areas are 38,000 ha for rice and 120,000 ha for maize. Rice and
maize are equally important as staple food crops, however, land
suitable for rice production are limited and maize is more widely
grown in the uplands including hillsides. Irrigation water in many
of the irrigated rice areas are available only when river water
level from the source has increased to the level of the intake of
the irrigation systems.
Yield per hectare of rice is about 1.5 Mt ha, still low compared
to other rice-growing countries in Asia, largely because of poor
application of improved technologies including use of quality seeds,
fertilizer, and sometimes limited supply of irrigation water. Less
than 20% of the
irrigated rice areas produce a second crop of rice within the year.
Because of high cost, among other reasons, farmers do not normally
use fertilizer in rice production. |
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Maize production occupies about 121,000 ha of
land with
yields usually less than 1 Mt per hectare. Use of poor quality
seeds,
poor soil condition, drought, and occasionally incidence of
pests and
diseases are the usual causes of low yield of maize at farmers'
fields
in Timor-Leste. About 81% of the households grow maize (TLHS,
2002). |
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| Other food crops grown
in Timor-Leste include cassava,
sweet potato, taro, bananas, squash, kidney beans, soybeans, mungbean,
peanut and white potato. Cassava is grown by almost every households
because together with sweet potato and taro, they also provide the
source of calorific energy at times when supply of rice or maize
has run out. Cassava is estimated
to be grown in about 55,000 ha of land while sweet potato in about
32,000 ha of land.
Most common commercial crops are Arabica coffee chimeri
(candlenut tree), vanilla and coconut. Coffee is grown largely at
high elevations in the districts of Liquica, Ermera, Ainaro, Bobonaro
and Aileu.
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Cropping systems involving food crops in Timor-Leste
vary depending on topography, elevation, and rainfall pattern. One
crop or two crops of rice dominates the cropping system in the irrigated
or rainfed areas of the northern lowlands. Where no irrigation water
is available and topographic and hydrologic conditions do not permit
growing of flooded rice, maize or peanut followed by cassava, sweet
potato, or beans are commonly grown. Cropping systems in the northern
slopes include single or two crops of flooded rice, maize followed
by cassava, sweet potato or pumpkin, or mixed cropping of maize,
cassava, kidney beans or peanut, and sweet potato. In the northern
and southern highlands, households still grow rice in small areas
supplied by communal systems, maize, cassava, sweet potato, beans,
and kantas. In the southern slopes, farmers grow maize followed
by cassava or mixed cropping of maize with cassava, sweet potato,
and peanut but because of the relatively longer wet period, cropping
systems are usually of longer duration.
Deolindo da Silva and Genaro San Valentin
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