DILI, 06 july 2021 (TATOLI) – The Secretary of State for Cooperatives (SECOOP) considered the advantages of the Government’s Food Basket (Cesta Básica) Program outweigh the disadvantages.
The Secretary of State for Cooperatives (SECOOP), Elizário Ferreira said that one of the biggest advantages of the Food Basket program is that many farmers and local communities are motivated to grow more of their agricultural products.
Ferreira said the program isn’t only benefited the farmers but also benefited the truck owners: “Many vehicles, particularly trucks were rented by companies for transporting the staple food to the local communities in rural areas and vice versa.”
Across Timor-Leste, five people of each village were hired to support the distribution of the staple food to communities, Ferreira affirmed.
In addition, each of the contracted companies also hired up to 100 people during the implementation of the program, said Ferreira.
“All in all, under the SECOOP’s implementation, up to 70.000 temporary jobs were created, even if it was just temporary work, but it benefitted many people. The downside of the program is because of the Covid-19 restriction, making it difficult for farmers to transport their local products to capital Dili,” Ferreira said.
Of the 400.000 beneficiaries, around 32.000 beneficiaries received their staple food of the Cesta Basica Program from SECOOP.
“Communities always requested the government to continue implementing the program, but it depended on the collective decision of the Council of Ministers,” added Ferreira.
In addition, the Chief of the Anin-Fuik Aitarak-Laran Sub-Village, of Campo-Alor Village, in Dili, Frangelino Maia said that due to Covid-19 and the recent calamity, many people still lack the staple food, saying, therefore, the government needed to continue implementing the program.
“As we all know that the new dangerous variant of Covid-19, known as Alpha, and Delta variants are detected in our neighboring country Indonesia. So, if the government is going to implement serious measures to prevent these two variants from entering Timor-Leste, then the Government must continue its Cesta Basica Program to sustain communities in need to stay at home,” said Maia.
Maia said in his hamlet, around 2878 were eligible to receive the staple food, of the number, 65 households hadn’t received theirs.
“I think the government needs to accelerate its distribution of the staple food to those communities that haven’t received the food since the implementation of the program,” said Maia.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafy Belo
