Household food insecurity in Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste is among the world’s youngest and poorest countries. It suffers from seasonal food insecurity and has the third-highest stunting rate globally. Previously inadequately documented, this paper summarises recent advances in understanding household food security in Timor-Leste and the multif...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Food security 2013-02, Vol.5 (1), p.83-94
Main Authors: da Costa, Marcelino dJ, Lopes, Modesto, Ximenes, Anita, Ferreira, Adelfredo do Rosario, Spyckerelle, Luc, Williams, Rob, Nesbitt, Harry, Erskine, William
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Air. Soil. Water. Waste. Feeding
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Environment
Environment. Living conditions
Food Science
Life Sciences
Medical sciences
Original Paper
Plant Sciences
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Social Policy
Social Sciences
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Timor-Leste is among the world’s youngest and poorest countries. It suffers from seasonal food insecurity and has the third-highest stunting rate globally. Previously inadequately documented, this paper summarises recent advances in understanding household food security in Timor-Leste and the multifaceted approaches being used to overcome it. Information comes from the extensive annual surveys of the Seeds of Life (SoL) program in Timor-Leste. The hungry season prior to maize and rice harvests is the key issue in household food security in Timor-Leste. Farm households cope with the problem through crop diversification with tubers playing a lead role as grain stocks dwindle. Foraging for wild food resources, selling animals and other assets, and social networks are other coping strategies. To address seasonal food insecurity, the government has focused on rice importation and the improvement of agricultural productivity within a multi-dimensional program. Information on storage by households of the key staple, maize, indicates an improving trend in food security at the household level from 2006/2007 to 2010/2011 through a significant reduction in the percentage of ‘at risk’ households—those who grow insufficient maize for storage during the year. The current emphasis on the widespread dissemination of the new high-yielding SoL cultivars has the potential to augment these improving trends. Nevertheless this picture remains vulnerable to weather shocks—such as drought—which are anticipated to increase with climate change and it is important to build further resilience into the agricultural systems of Timor-Leste.
ISSN:1876-4517
1876-4525
DOI:10.1007/s12571-012-0228-6