FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO EAST TIMOR - 19 April 2000

Abstract

An FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission visited East Timor between 30 March and 7 April to; (i) assess current prospects for the main maize and rice harvest, which is underway or to commence in the coming weeks; (ii) review overall food supply prospects and the need for further food aid intervention during the 2000/2001 marketing year and (iii) re-examine the degree of vulnerability and ways to improve future food aid targeting. As information and essential data, especially regarding agriculture and social institutions, were largely destroyed during the unrest, the mission relied on published statistical data from Indonesia, discussion with key international and bilateral agencies, NGOs, the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), producers and on field visits to agricultural and vulnerable areas with varying degrees of accessibility. The current mission provides an update to an FAO/WFP assessment in November 1999, that evaluated the level of disruption to the a griculture sector in the wake of intense violence and large-scale population displacement following the 30 August referendum for independence. At that time, it was estimated that many people were killed whilst almost the entire population was either internally displaced or sought refuge in West Timor. Infrastructure, essential services and property were also severely damaged, seriously affecting commercial and economic activities. In the agriculture sector the main repercussions of the civil unr est were the direct loss of food and seed stocks, loss of productive assets and displacement of the farming population. These in turn affected planting of main season crops in November/December. The present mission observed, that although these factors did affect agricultural operations, especially in delaying planting, the overall consequences on output are likely to be less pronounced than may have been expected given the level of disruption that had occurred to the sector.