This project was completed in 2022
For questions or more information on RAEBIA and SAPIP, please contact Deputy Director Matues Maia at
​
RAEBIA is one of the consortium partners of SAPIP (Sustainable Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project).
LINK HERE https://www.gafspfund.org/projects/sustainable-agriculture-productivity-improvement-project-sapip
​
The locations of RAEBIA's partnership with SAPIP are in Loes, Belulik, Tono and Oecouse.
​
In Timor Leste, the agriculture sector sustains the livelihoods of 64% of the country’s labor force, but contributes to only around 10% of the economy. The unemployment rate is around 70%, with more than half of the population under 25 years old. Malnutrition and food insecurity are particularly pervasive in remote rural areas, which in many cases are only accessible by horse or foot, and nearly all households exhaust their home-grown food supplies within nine months. These areas typically have rain-fed crop land used for unsustainable small-scale subsistence farming, and large areas on steep slopes with infertile soils. They are also particularly vulnerable to weather shocks like floods and off-season rains.
​
The Sustainable Agriculture Productivity Improvement Project (SAPIP) aims to improve incomes as well as food and nutrition security in select areas of Timor-Leste through improved country-led public sector investments in increasing smallholder agricultural productivity, empowering farmers and linking them to markets, strengthening adaptive research and extension institutions, reducing risk and vulnerability, improving non-farm rural livelihoods, and using technical assistance strategically. It aims to support municipal and watershed agriculture development planning; farm development initiatives; small-scale infrastructure and farm equipment; and the Ministry of Agriculture’s planning, financing, monitoring, and coordination function. It will focus on improved watershed management to enhance livelihoods and reduce climate-related vulnerability by improving water management and supporting agro/social forestry and commercial forestry for environmental rehabilitation. Activities will also include developing and strengthening farmer groups, associations, and cooperatives, which will engage women and young people as well. The project will assist approximately 16,500 households, impacting about 100,000 people. It will ensure that 30% of the production-focused groups are women’s groups and that 10% of all groups formed include young people. It is also expected to increase the productivity of major crops for direct beneficiaries by at least 20%, and increase the marketed surpluses for these crops by at least 20%.