CETAF TO HOST A TRAINEE FROM AILEU - OSCAR PAULINO
After a thorough selection process Oscar Paulino has been chosen as the applicant for the Royce Abbey Fellowship, which will enable him to come to this region for 12 weeks to study agricultural practises. A sub committee of CETAF has been formed to organize his visit. Bernadine Kelly, Rhonda Sutton and Edward McEniry volunteered to be on this committee. Glenda Dunque and Anne Peace have also offered to advise the committee due to their extensive experience in hosting (and the need for a few more helpers!)

There has been a great deal of communication regarding suitable dates. These will be advised as soon as possible. In the meantime below is some information about Oscar and the areas of agriculture that he will be interested in.

Aileu is about 750km2 of relatively well-watered upland valleys and drier hills, where the majority of the 40,000 population lives by subsistence agriculture. Rainfall is about 1500mm pa but comes in short bursts in a rainy season of 4 to 6 months duration.

Notes from meeting May 09 with Sr Joao dos Santos (Director Agriculture), Mario Soares (Friendship Commission Liaison Officer, District Admin) and Oscar Mali Ela Paulino

1 Agricultural Priorities for Aileu District

· Government Sector Investment Plan, Government Agricultural Strategy or Statement
Ø 2009-2014 1 Food Security
2 Forest Management – water & soil conservation

· Aileu District (and Sub-District) plans
Ø 2005-2009 Horticulture (vegetables, fruit) – increase horticulture
Ø 2009-2014 Animal protein (cattle, fish) – more intensive breeding and animal food production

2 Statement of Oscar’s areas of work responsibility and interest, some of which could be included in traineeship work experience and study, eg:

a) Animal production and management (buffalo, cattle, goats, pigs)
Ø Animal health
Ø Transport, including feeding
Ø Slaughter house
Ø Handling, storage and sale of meat

b) Pasture and Fodder production and management
Ø Development of trial plots in all sub-districts for grass and fodder production, both irrigated (e.g. Seloi Craik, Halalameta, Montane, Betualu) and dryland
Ø Handling, storage and use of animal feed

c) Other areas related to role as District Chief of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries:
i. Crop production (rice, maize)
Ø Seed quality
Ø Weeding
Ø Storage – seed and crop
Ø Deployment of hand tracktors
Ø Increasing irrigation/Opening new fields

ii. Horticulture
Ø Improve quality
Ø Transport and marketing
Ø Small greenhouse (e.g. Montane)

iii. Forestry
Ø Additional nurseries, including eucaltypts, coffee trees and shade trees)
Ø Planting near water sources (springs)

iv. Fisheries
Ø Fish ponds, integrated with horticulture

v. Team Leadership
Ø Manages approx 20 staff

vi. Project Management and Program management
Ø Consultation, budgeting, monitoring reporting

Oscar Paulino is 34 in September this year. He graduated from UNTL in 2007 with a degree in Animal Production (final year thesis Chicken Broiler production). Since January 2009 he has position of Chief of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Aileu District. He is involved in preparing annual District plans based on Government priorities and budgets and is active in seeking solutions to problems within the office. As decentralisation progessess he would increasingly contribute input to higher level Government plans and budgets. I'll try to get a stsatement of Government agriculture priorities for Aileu and send to you both asap.

Oscar was previously District Livestock Officer (2 years) and before that Livestock Dept Chief at the Maliana Agriculture Technical School (2 years) for students in Years 10-12, after working in Administration in the Education Ministry for 4 years during Indonesian times.

Oscar has particular interests in fodder production, in particular to help increase the number of beef cattle including in the drier hills, and completed a short course in Goat Husbandry 21 Nov-11 Dec 2005 at Canobolas Rural Technical High School in Orange NSW. His English is a of a good beginner standard and his interview for the traineship was conducted partly in English.

Apart from fodder production and management, other potential areas of interest include cirtus production, maize cropping, general small garden vegetable production and small animal production, including chickens for meat and eggs, re-forestation, water conservation and soil erosion control.
1 The animal production and animal feed initiatives are the things Oscar is most enthused about andwould like to getsome relevant experience for.
2 Anything in the way of team leadership, and project and program management
organic/free range chicken raising and egg production
Also 'permaculture' type production and/or use of mulching, compost etc
storage, processing, packaging and marketing (perhaps specialist crops or for
niche markets - for Aileu the initial areas of interest might be domestic
scale storage and handling improvements (for personal use and/or surplus to be
transported to local market and for onward processing), further developing
technical and management processes for the preparation and marketing of fresh
vegetables and fruit and some dried products to supermarkets in Dili) -
generally smaller scale or lower tech, or aspects that could be
adapted/adopted gradually
* 'new' vegetables, not so commonly grown localy but with a potential
to replace things often imported such as brocoli, asparagus?, need to do more
research on possiblities,
* improving yields (simple methods) of fruit or vegetables, e.g. the
lemon/orange grower you mentioned
* small scale irrigation - flood, drip, spray (or if larger scale,
aspects that could be used in smaller operations)
* others you think of interest