DILI, 25 june 2021 (TATOLI) – The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF), together with the development partners including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Civil Society discuss action plan of scaling up nutrition in Timor-Leste through implementing a pilot project in three villages – Afasa village in Baucau municipality, Fahi Nehan in Manufahi and Daudu village in Bobonaro municipality.
“In today’s discussion, we talked about consolidating our national action plan for nutrition and food security. We begin with scaling up nutrition in these three villages first then we can enlarge the program to other villages in the country,” Filipe da Costa, the Coordinator of the Civil Society Support Office under the Prime Minister’s Office, told reporters at MAF’s office in Dili, today.
Costa said 37 percent of Timor-Leste’s population lived in food-insecure households prior to the Covid-19 and april flash flood, saying the number would have increased due to the impacts of Covid-19 and the recent floods.
Costa called on all entities to work hard and work together to scale up the investment in the agricultural sector to achieve Timor-Leste’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goal.
At the same place, Paula Lopez da Cruz, the FAO’s representative said the three villages were chosen for the implementation of the pilot project as the population in these villages were in a difficult situation in terms of food security and malnutrition.
“The integrated work of the National Council for Food Security, Sovereignty and Nutrition in Timor-Leste is important to implement an integrated action plan to increase food production in these villages,” said Cruz.
Cruz said around US$ 400.000 had been allocated for the implementation of the two-year pilot project.
He emphasized that FAO would continue supporting the MAF on any agricultural activities to combat malnutrition in Timor-Leste.
He said the project was important to improve the capacity of the local communities in the three villages to increase their local food production.
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Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafy Belo
