AGRICULTURE CALENDARSSeeds of Life’s agricultural calendars capture the annual cycle of cultivation activities for staple food crops in East Timor. They also represent how labour is organised and the religious rituals associated with cultivating these crops.The agricultural calendars are designed to provide extension and planning tools for Seeds of Life (SoL) researchers, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) field staff, and non-government organisations (NGOs) involved in agricultural extension work in East Timor. They allow users to quickly see the cultivation activities for both first and second season planting and associated weather patterns for any of SoL’s research sites at any time during the calendar year. We have produced two calendar sets. The first set is a classic agriculture calendar showing the timing of all major cultivation activities (SoL commodities and other cash crops such as coffee or mung beans) and non-cultivation agricultural activities (for example building fences, garden shelters, and mats for drying the harvest), as well as the timing of religious rituals associated with cultivation. While the village (suko) is the axis of this first calendar set, the axis of the second calendar set is the commodity. The second set is comparative and shows cultivation activities for a single commodity against time/weather for each village. For example, the maize calendar for Baucau district shows cultivation activity times for maize in five villages where research was carried out: Loilubo (770m), Garuwai (680m), Vemase Tasi (255m), Sesal (7m) and Buroma (2m). Our socio-economic research team (SOSEK) conducted research for the agricultural calendars in 32 villages across 16 sub-districts between April 2006 and September 2009. They identified respondents to represent the variety of elevation, soil types, slope, and orientation in each district. The respondents were farmers participating in SoL on-farm demonstration trials (OFDTs) who were prominent figures in their own communities, for example xefe suco (village heads), xefe aldeia (hamlet head), catechists, teachers, or lia nain (elders who preside over ritual practice and customary law). Interviews often included the respondent, adult members of their own household, extended family members living in other households, and neighbours, resembling a kind of focus group with participants disputing, elaborating and clarifying the answer of any one speaker. For example, in Letefoho (Manufahi district) a core group of about 10 adults — men and women of different age groups — attended each interview. Seeds of Life staff visited the respondents to arrange a suitable time prior to each interview, and following local custom interviewers offered areca nut, betel leaf and lime powder in a woven basket as a means of opening each visit. The SOSEK team visited each household approximately nine times, with interviews between an hour and a half and three hours in length. Interviews were conducted in Tetum, with occasional assistance from local language interpreters in the districts of Baucau and Liquica. We have prepared commodity calendars for the four districts where SoL has worked since 2005, and where the majority of our research and seed production activities take place: Aileu, Baucau, Liquica and Manufahi. We have prepared village calendars to represent the range of agricultural ecological zones within each district where Seeds of Life conducts research and seed production activities. Gender–specific village calendars have been prepared for the two districts where SoL has most recently started to work, Bobonaro and Viqueque. These calendars present which agricultural activities generally involve men, women or mixed gender groups. In addition to the graphical presentation in agricultural calendars, this information is also presented in the SOSEK Commodity Report, available from Seeds of Life. The written report also provides full information on the gender division of agricultural labour. Click on the links below to download individual calendars in English, as PNG image files. |  |