DILI, 21 january (2022)- The director of the National Logistic Center (NLC), Tito da Costa guaranteed that food consumption is sufficient for six months from january to july 2023.
“We are having enough of local and imported foods quantity to respond for national consumption in six months,’’ The NLC logistic Director, Tito Da Costa told Tatoli Agency at his office in Bebora, this friday.
According to Costa, NLC has a total of 2.500 local food stock in the warehouse.
“The local food items are composed of rice 1.874 tons, red beans 375 tons, green beans 300 tons, black beans 21, 3 tons, peanuts 23,3 tons, and corn 12 tons. These items are currently available in the national logistic center in Dili, included of 500 tons in Baucau’s warehouse,” he said.
Costa also added that these products are the local products produced by the local farmers from Viqueque, Bobonaro, and Manufahi.
He said NCL also imports international food, to support national consumption, particularly rice from other countries.
Previously the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery, Pedro Reis stated that, due to the local rice production shortage, the Government through MAF and NLC continues to import 135.000 tons of rice every year to meet the national consumption targets.
According to Data from MAF, in 2020 Timor-Leste produced 48,000 tons of rice, in 2021 production reached 76,000 tons while in 2022 it increased to 86,000 tons.
Despite the effort made by the Government, to meet the consumption targets, in early 2023, the National Council for Food Security, Sovereignty and Nutrition in Timor-Leste (KONSSANTIL) released a report on acute integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) stated that 20% of food insecurity which means over 300.000 Timorese continue to suffer from food insecurity.
Related News:https://en.tatoli.tl/2023/01/12/konssantil-20-of-the-timorese-population-suffering-from-food-insecurity/15/
With the launching of this report, Minister of Agriculture and Fishery, Pedro Reis said the report will help the government analyze the data on national food consumption demands and collect the local food to respond to the food shortage in this country.
To respond to this food shortage issue, Government through the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery (MoAF), established eight irrigation systems in Bucau Larisula and Maliana in 2021.
In 2022, MoAF also launched two irrigation systems in Lospalos Laivai with a total of 8.5 million USD and in Galata with a total of 11 million USD.
The government also landed a total of 81.5 million USD from the Asian Development Bank (ABD) for water installation contributing to intensifying local crop production in Timor-Leste.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia B.
