Seeds

Seeds of Life(SoL) is a program within the Timor Leste Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF). We are funded collaboratively by MAF and the Australian Government, through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). he Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) within the University of Western Australia (UWA) is commissioned to coordinate our Australian-funded activities. SoL started its phase 3 (SoL3) in 2011 and the program is guided by the work on variety selection that started in 2000 (SoL1) which was extended in a second phase with seed production and distribution that commenced in late 2005 and ended up working in seven of the thirteen districts in Timor Leste (SoL2). SoL3 builds on the scientific results and technical capacity built in MAF during SoL1 and SoL2. SoL maintains a core focus on increasing yields by selecting and distributing improved varieties of superior genetic quality. It also has a secondary focus on analysing and developing strategies to overcome climate variability and change; improving agronomic practices to reduce weed burdens and increase soil fertility; reducing post harvest storage losses and improving input supply arrangements for seed. The program concentrates on evaluating higher yielding varieties of crops currently cultivated by farmers in Timor-Leste. These are maize, sweet potato, cassava, rice and peanuts. A small amount of work is also conducted on some minor crops such as wheat, barley, potato and various bean crops. The goal of the program is "Improved food security through increased productivity of major foodcrops", with the objective: "81,000 farmers have access to and are routinely using improved food crop varieties". To achieve this, SoL3 has four Components, which include the two main previous areas, but also expand work to informal seed production and distribution, and to overall seed system management. These four components build on each other in a logical manner.