Timor Leste, Bagaimana Perkembangan Pertaniannya?

Petani Timor Leste

Harianjogja.com, SLEMAN - Distrik Lautem, Timor Leste merupakan daerah subur sehingga berpotensi untuk pengembangan pertanian. Namun produktivitas pertanian belum optimal karena sistem pertanian yang dijalankan masih dilakukan secara tradisional.

Pengembangan pertanian di distrik Lautem pada areal seluas 43. 550 ha untuk budidaya padi dan 70.000 ha untuk tanaman jagung. Sementara produksi yang dihasilkan untuk budidaya padi sebesar 1,5 t ha-1 dan jagung sebesar 0,6 t ha-1.

“Pemanfaatan dan pengelolaan sumber daya alam di Lautem menjadi belum optimal, karenanya perlu dilakukan evaluasi lahan ” kata dosen Universitas Nasional timor Lorosae, Antonio, Joao Da Costa, Senin (11/1/2016) saat ujian terbuka program doktor di Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), seperti dilansir dari rilis yang Harianjogja.com terima

Antonio menyebutkan kesuburan tanah di sub distrik Lautem dan Luro berada pada tingkat sedang (63,6%). Meskipun memiliki kesuburan tanah yang bagus, pengembangan pertanian di wilayah ini masih saja terkendala dengan kondisi fisik lahan yang berupa lereng serta adanya erosi di lahan pertanian.

Dari hasil evaluasi lahan diketahui pertanian padi dan palawija di daerah tersebut berada di luar batas kesesuaian lahan dengan faktor pembatas utama bersifat non-permanen. Untuk meningkatkan potensi pertanian tanaman pangan, Antonio menghimbau pengembangan pertanian ke depan dilakukan dalam satuan lahan yang berada dalam batas kelas kesesuaian lahan.

Satuan lahan Odafuro (SPT 17) dan Suruwaku (SPT 18) diprioritaskan untuk budidaya tanaman padi lahan kering dan palawija. Sementara satuan lahan Atecalmor (SPT 126) untuk budidaya kacang tanah.

“ Sedangkan satuan lahan selain Odafuro, Suruwaku, dan Atecalmor di subdistrik Lautem dan Luro diprioritaskan sebagai areal konservasi karena berada di luar batas kelas kesesuaian lahan untuk tanaman padi dan palwija,” paparnya saat mempertahankan disertasi berjudul “Evaluasi Lahan Sebagai Dasar Pengembangan Pertanian Tanaman Pangan: Kasus di Raumoco Lautem, Timor Leste”.

Antonio menambahkan, untuk perencanaan pertanaman padi dan palawija sebaiknya diprioritaskan di awal masa tanam. Hal ini dikarenakan kebutuhan air tergantung pada ketersediaan air dan membutuhkan irigasi tambahan untuk masa tanam kedua.

“Periode ketersediaan air berlangsung sangat singkat sehingga emerlukan irigasi tambahan dalam rencana pertnamanan dan pola tanam,” terangnya.

Terkait pola tanama, lanjut dia, sistem tumpang sari dianjurkan pada lahan yang luas ataupun per bedengan. DIsamping itu tidak mengabaikan tanaman Mucuna serta penggunaan teknologi dengan permintaan lahan.

Sumber: Harian Jogja
http://m.harianjogja.com

XANANA: KALAU DI GHANA ADA KOFI ANNAN, DI TIMOR LESTE ADA KOPI TIMOR

LAPORAN: IHSAN DALIMUNTHE

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao

RMOL. Mantan Perdana Menteri (PM) Timor Leste, Xanana Gusmao memberikan kain tenun dan kopi khas Timor Leste kepada Menteri Luar Negeri Retno P Marsudi saat menyambangi kantornya.

Menlu Retno melakukan hal yang sama. Dia memberikan buah tangan berupa kemeja batik kepada Xanana.

"Wah saya dapat batik, tapi tidak mungkin saya pakai sekarang. Terima kasih," kelakar Xanana di hadapan wartawan dalam pertemuan yang berlangsudng di Gedung Pancasila, Kemenlu, Jakarta, Senin (24/8).

Tak hanya memberikan kain tenun, pria yang pernah dipenjara oleh rezim Soeharto ini memberikan kopi khas negaranya.

"Kalau Ghana terkenal dengan Kofi Annan, Timor Leste terkenal dengan Kopi Timor," candanya.

Xanana mengungkapklan kedatangannya menemui Menlu untuk menguatkan hubungan bilateral antar kedua negara, sekaligus ingin menyampaikan kunjungan PM Timor Leste yang baru. Tak hanya itu, Xanana juga mengkau kedatangannya ke Indonesia untuk menyampaikan selamat hari kemerdekaan bagi Indonesia.

"Congratulation for your Independence day. Selamat HUT ke-70 untuk Indonesia," demikian Xanana yang menggunakan jas abu-abu.[dem]

rmol.co
http://dunia.rmol.co/
read/2015/08/24/214558/Xanana:-Kalau-di-Ghana-Ada-Kofi-Annan,
-di-Timor-Leste-Ada-Kopi-Timor-

Fortunes of farmers in East Timor grow as seeds start to drive the economy

Members of Grupu Agrikultura Manufahi (GAM) commercial seed producer harvesting Sele commercial seed (ACIAR)

While oil has been the mainstay of East Timor's economy in the past, it is farming that is transforming rural areas and creating a new breed of entrepreneurs.

Businessmen and women are learning to grow and barter seeds from crops like corn, thanks to the help of an Australian Government aid program.

John Dalton is the Australian team leader for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research's (ACIAR) Seeds of Life program, which has been running since 2000.

For three or four months of each year many families experience the "hungry season" where, as John Dalton said, people literally do not have enough to eat.

"When ACIAR first went into Timor one of things they noted was that the varieties of seed crops were very old varieties and so it went about importing better varieties of rice, maize, sweet potato, cassava and peanuts," he said.

Prior to the intervention up to 40 per cent of stored maize was lost each year to pests, like weevils and rats.

But Mr Dalton said a simple change in varieties meant these losses were being eliminated.

"We have researched them right across the country in a range of situations," he said.

"Of the 12 released varieties they're averaging a 70 - 80 per cent lift in yield."

Survey results conducted by ACIAR show farmers are now starting to take the fortune of agriculture into their own hands.

"Our final phase, which ends in another 12 months, is to establish a seed system so that those varieties are available to the 130,000 East Timorese farmers."

Developing agricultural entrepreneurs

This year the Seeds of Life program is working to establish a sustainable national seed system.

"Seed supplies are grown and organised at a community level, through community seed producer groups," Mr Dalton said.

"They produce enough seed for themselves and store it for the next cropping and enough to distribute, barter or sell to their neighbours.

"There are three of these groups per village and 1300 across the country.

"We are working closely with the municipal staff of the Ministry of Agriculture to help them set up municipal seed systems so that each municipality knows how much seed it needs."

This program has been so successful that the country's reliance on imports of maize, corn and rice seed have almost ceased due to the creation of what Mr Dalton calls East Timor's first real agricultural entrepreneurs.

"We have now developed a commercial seed industry and about 60 producers now satisfy that demand" he said.

"The millions of dollars that used to go out of the country to Indonesia or Vietnam now stay in the country and those commercial seed producers are probably the first genuine entrepreneurs in agriculture.

"That is the way the country has to move."

Seeds of Life promotes social changes

What started out as a program to help farmers grow crops has resulted in large scale social change in many communities across the rugged terrain of East Timor.

Mr Dalton said East Timor needed to start making money from industries other than oil.

He said farmers were starting to take the economy in a different direction.

"There is a tendency for agriculture just to be seen as a subsistence lifestyle," Mr Dalton said.

"There is a huge need for the country to move forward on integrated rural development, so that it starts to generate wealth from something other than its oil resources.

"The name of the game is empowerment; to empower people to understand how they can continue to manage change.

"You have to hasten to slowly and there is a lot of mentoring and hand holding while people are training while largely on the job."

Seeds of Life is a program run within the Ministry of Agriculture in East Timor.

The program is funded collaboratively by the Australian and the Timor Leste governments.

The official aim is to establish a national seed system, including identifying improved varieties of maize, rice, sweet potato, peanut and cassava.

The seed system is currently in transition from being program led to being fully managed by the Ministry of Agriculture in East Timor and the Seeds of Life program will be closing in June of 2016.

It is understood Australian Aid and ACIAR are working on a follow-up project which would be aimed at more integrated rural development, so that village level activities could be coordinated.

Source: BBC.net.au
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-08/farmers-saving-the-economy-in-easttimor-through-seeds-of-life/6518046