Author : Moniz, Agostinho C.

Summary : Rice and maize contribute substantially to Timorese's daily calorie intake and overall nutrition. Improving lowland rice and maize yield will reduce rice shortage and enhance food security. Survey of 112 rice and 105 maize smallhold farmers in Maliana Sub-district, Bobonaro District, Timor Leste described their profile, existing practices, challenges to identify interventions to increase farm productivity, and income. Farms are dominantly rainfed and farmers production practices were traditional (use seeds from their previous harvests, rarely control pest and diseases and few apply fertilizer) resulting to low yields and income. To increase yield, farmers should be willing to adopt changes in their practices and access new technologies.

Field trials evaluated the productivity, profitability, and energy use efficiencies of hybrids and inbred or open-pollinated varieties of rice, maize, and sorghum. Sorghum could be an alternative cereal for food and energy diversification. Mechanized land preparation and harvesting, fertilizer application, and irrigation were applied across crops, technologies that are not generally adopted in Maliana, Timor-Leste.

Rice production under the conditions of the field trial was profitable for both hybrids and inbreds either in SR or DR based on the net income, break even yield (BEY) and breakeven price (BEP) indicators. Energy inputs in the trials was high, fertilizer urea accounting for almost 99% of the material cost energy bill (67.46%). To recover the energy used in production, the yield should be 0.75% higher than actual yield, i.e.,7.86 t ha-1 for SR and 9.83 t ha-1 for DR. Higher density planting, DR was 22% more energy efficiency compared with SR.

Hybrid and inbred varieties of maize and sorghum had comparable yields. Corn production under the conditions of the trial was profitable across varieties and planting densities. Hybrids had higher estimated net income per ha ($3,550) compared with open pollinated variety (OPV) ($3,003). Sorghum, with lower yield than expected, has a lower profitability than corn. Hybrid sorghum had higher net income of $556 while inbred earned $423 per ha. Material and fuel inputs accounted for 55% and 44.75% of the energy expenditure of corn and sorghum. Machinery and labor contributed less than 1%. To recover the total energy input used in production, corn needs at least 6.9 t ha-1, double the actual yield. Sorghum yield of 8 t ha-1 or 4x the actual yield would offset the amount of energy inputs for both varieties. While mechanization, and improved variety and management practices can improve efficiency of cereals production, the energy cost has to be balanced with increased productivity and income.