Streamline Training & Documentation: Forestry Training in East Timor

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Forestry Training in East Timor

Nursery constructed by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries staff in Baucau, Timor-Leste.
Source: Hawai'i Forestry Extension (pdf)
The College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa has a forestry extension service, one of whose activities — the Agroforestry Program of the Timor-Leste Agricultural Rehabilitation, Economic Growth, and Natural Resources Management Project — has assisted development of forestry resources in the country previously referred to as East Timor.

The project included training for staff of the Timor-Leste Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries and for groups of farmers. At the CTAHR website, you can access several presentations made by J. B. Friday, an extension forester, during the 2004 Agroforestry Nursery Training Series, which was delivered in Dili (the capital of Timor-Leste), Baucau (the second largest city), and Venilale (near Baucau).

The presentations (with scripts in English and Tetun, the Timor-Leste national language) "show examples of good nursery practices used throughout the Pacific Islands, with suggestions as to how they might be used in East Timor." There were four lessons:

The Target Tree Seedling — introduces the concepts of species selection, pots and containers, healthy seedlings with good root development, quality seed, timing of outplanting, and field evaluation of the seedlings produced by the nursery so that improvements can be made year-by-year.

Planting Stock and Containers — how different size seedlings should be grown for different projects.

Building Forestry Nurseries — how to construct shade for nurseries, why raised beds are beneficial, what other nursery structures are useful, and where to locate the nursery.

Seed Technology — why it is important to collect good seed, how to collect and store seed.

Other topics covered in the workshops included:

species selection

examples of healthy and poor-quality seedlings

soil and potting materials

seed extraction and cleaning

calendars and planning planting dates and growing seasons

You can get an overview of current conditions in Timor-Leste at a webpage maintained by the World Bank. The forestry webpage of the Timor-Leste Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries is here.

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Labels: Asia, Productivity

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