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Timor-Leste Maize Storage Programme (TLMSP)

  • Published on February 7, 2020
TLMSP had the objective of reducing on-farm maize storage losses to improve the food security of poor and hungry families in Timor-Leste's upland farming zone. This was pursued by providing farmers with storage drums at a subsidised cost and training beneficiaries in their use and maintenance. The programme distributed over 41,000 steel drums to 23,000 households.A participatory and community-based approach was adopted and young agricultural graduates delivered the training.
Objective was to reduce maize storage losses to improve the food security of poor and hungry families in Timor-Leste's upland farming zone. The project resulted in significant benefits, including: -Successfully reduced storage losses from 15 per cent to less than 1 per cent among farmers who adopted the drums. This resulted in an estimated saving of 1,079 Mt of incremental food (about 80 kg of staple food per target family) every year. -The food security of 23,000 target households was substantially improved as a result of the intervention. According to the final impact assessment, the percentage of households experiencing a first hungry season reduced from 95 to 33 per cent, while the percentage of households experiencing a second hungry season dropped from 31 to 6 per cent. Among children under 5 years, acute malnutrition was reduced by 3.2 per cent, chronic malnutrition was reduced by 3.3 per cent, and the rate of underweight children was reduced by 14.1 per cent in the area in which the programme was run. -When the storage drums were coupled with improved maize varieties, net maize production doubled and the value of the maize produced tripled, resulting in a return on investment of 400 per cent for subsidized drums and 52 per cent for non-subsidized drums. - Project could be upscaled.
Project start date
07/02/2020
Project end date
07/02/2020

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