Making Agriculture Work for the Poor in Timor-Leste
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Washington, DC: World Bank
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With about 80 percent of poor
households in Timor-Leste dependent on agriculture for their
livelihood, it is widely acknowledged that growth in the
agriculture sector is an important channel for poverty
reduction in the country. That notwithstanding, the
country’s agricultural production system is one of the least
developed in the world, with the sector’s productivity being
well below that of other small island developing states and
below the average for other low-income states. Using data
from the 2007 and 2014 waves of the Timor-Leste Surveys of
Living Standards, this paper provides insight into the
extent to which increases in agricultural productivity can
contribute to poverty reduction, and assesses the drivers of
and constraints to increasing agricultural productivity in
the country. The findings show that improvements in
agricultural productivity reduce the probability of being
poor among agricultural households. The paper also finds
that for agricultural productivity to increase, the
following factors should be considered: facilitation of farm
mechanization, improvement in the use of chemical
(fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides) inputs, enhancement
of access to credit and extension, encouragement to farmers
to join farmer groups, expansion of the commercialization of
farm produce, and reduction in the gender gap in
agricultural productivity.
Palabras clave
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, POVERTY, TIMOR-LESTE, ACCESS TO CREDIT, EXTENSION, NO POVERTY, SDG 1