Timor-Leste is currently making afford to decrease importation of rice and other basic needs. This is as a huge gap which must be responsible by Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Environment as well as Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery. In the other hand the private sector is expected to play an important role to reduce the importation.
The obligation of both ministries is to ensure that the reduction of the importation will not cause to the availability of the needs in the country. The policy of the ministry of agriculture in provision of 2000 hand tractors and 313 tractors to the farmers is to improve the productivity of food. It is not the matters of the maintenance of the tractors but it is mostly about the distribution of the products. From the management of hand tractors and tractors by the farmers, it can be acknowledged that there are huge agricultural products produced such as rice, tubers, corn, nuts, tomatoes, carrots, coffee and many more horticulture goods. How the products can be transmitted into industrialization by the farmers? There is no a convenient local market in the municipality to sell those products out. There are insufficient consumers to buy because the farmers cultivated the same goods. Local agricultural products are nutritious, organic and fresh. It is pity that the government ignores those resources. Many campaigns shown by the government to purchase farmers’ products, however it is just a slogan. The Timorese people are more interesting to consume the imported product because it is cheaper and available everywhere.
One of the best mechanisms to create the products circulation in the country is to establish a network distribution on how to industrialize those products. The match making production and marketing is an urgent requirement in order to provide more spaces for self-employment by the farmers. The government should take an initiative on how to consume local agricultural product such as establishing national storages in different kind of productions to accommodate and sell out to the country.
Additional approaching from the government is to increase the price of importation and just to import the things that are not found yet in the country. By utilizing this kind of mechanism the farmers are motivated and incomes of them are also increased, frequently the production will be significant increased and economic of people in rural is also growing up. Timorese people become accustomed to consume its local production and the imported rice and other foods will be slowly decreased.
