Community participation in rice security programs in Cailaco and Maliana sub-districts, Timor-Leste

The study was conducted among the farmer groups who work in the rice program in Maliana and Cailaco sub-districts, Timor-Leste, namely, GroupuPurugua, Joventude Hadomi Agricultura, Grupo SRI, Holsa, Odomau, Maliana Hare Satu (1) and Sameklot. It focused on the farmer groups' community participation in rice security programs and determined the nature of their community involvement in general. One hundred three respondents from seven farmer groups were selected randomly. The data were gathered through individual farmer interview, key informant interview, focus group discussion, observation and review of documents. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used in the data analysis. In the study areas, IMPACT (Improve Marketing Production through Agricultural Cooperative in Timor-Leste) and Centro Desenvolviemento Comunitario (CDC) were the two programs implemented in 2013. IMPACT's components are System of Rice Intensification (SRI), food processing and market access while CDC's components include evaluation of food crop varieties, seed production and distribution, construction of irrigation system and training and information. The respondents are prime-aged, adults, males, married, unschooled, farming from two to 50 years, and have low income. Primary occupation is rice farming while other sources of income include poultry raising, vegetable and livestock productions. All respondents attended primary training focused on SRI, compost/fertilizer use, seed storage and seed selection and more than half of them have planted rice twice a year using exchange labour, family labour and hired labour.All the respondents expressed that they were free to suggest and voice out their opinions and both leaders and members discussed things freely and arrived at decision through the majority rule. Thus, it can be assumed that there is equality among all farmer members in their groups or organization. Furthermore, although the respondents have attended a number of trainings to improve their farming practices, their knowledge on high value crops still needs to be enhanced to improve food security. This should be given attention since rice is their staple food. Maize, cassava and banana served as food substitutes in case of rice shortage. In case of rice shortage in their production, they coped by buying rice from the market. For rice utilization in terms of number of meals per day, all respondents mentioned that they had three meals a day consuming 1.5 to 2.0 kg of rice per family per day. This could be attributed to the big family size of an ordinary household in Timor-Leste. Results of the binary regression analysis show that the significant factors affecting community participation in rice security programs specifically problem identification are year of organizational membership and trust to the farmers' group. For the planning phase, the significant factors are year of membership, total number of household members, income, and trust to farmers' group. For the implementation phase, farmer's age and financial resources are significant factors. Lastly, for the monitoring and evaluation, age is the only significant factor. Among the rice accessibility variables, knowledge in food aid in the village was significantly correlated with rice production per month, length of farming experience, and amount of financial resources. Moreover, participation in terms of rules and regulation crafting was also significantly correlated with knowledge of food aid in the village. Finally, age, total number of household members, length of farming experience and rice production income per month were correlated with rice utilization variable in terms of estimated rice consumed per family per day.