ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the nature of agriculture in Timor-Leste, while also introducing a series of issues that affect the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the realisation of food security in the country. It analyses the types of cropping and seed systems that characterise Timorese agriculture. The chapter outlines how the formation of the National Seed Policy unfolded in 2013 and offers a series of recommendations for how the national government, local farming communities, and civil society organisations might work together to ensure that the governance of plant varieties occurs in a sustainable manner in Timor-Leste, thereby ensuring the vitality of agriculture in the country. Timor-Leste has two distinct seed systems: the State-run seed system and the farmers’ seed system. The National Seed Policy is consistent with the obligations that Timor-Leste has assumed under a treaty to which the country is party, namely the Convention on Biological Diversity.
