Four Farmers and four extension workers were awarded with certificates of appreciation and 5 of them received FAO medals for their achievements and dedication in the implementation and in promoting the conservation agriculture (CA) technology in their communities. The awarding ceremony was part of the one week long commemoration of 2016 World Food Day (WFD) that took place in Baucau Municipality from 10 - 14 October 2016.

Like other countries Timor-Leste also celebrates WFD every year to remember the importance of food and agriculture for all human kind to live a happy life and healthy living. "The theme of this year's WFD is: Climate is changing, Food and Agriculture must too. This is very relevant to our world today including Timor-Leste, therefore we need to align our food system with the changing climate. We need to identify how best we can respond to climate change challenges. FAO's is working in many countries making effort to increase resilience in agriculture sector. In Timor-Leste we have been promoting CA since 2013 and the results have been very encouraging specially with the recent El-Nino, this technology has been proven to be highly effective to increase crop resilience to extreme drought. This is why I am here today to acknowledge the best performers of the CA adopters", said Mark Smulders, FAO Representative to Timor-Leste.

Cesaltina Baptista Ximenes and Joaquin Caldas were among the first farmers that have adopted conservation agriculture as soon as they see the first cropping season result and since then they have been the strong believer of CA and applied the techniques rigorously in their own farms. They also have been the big promoters of the technology in their own communities and their farms have been the best example where FAO and MAF would bring farmers from other places to observe their results. Manuel Martins, Luis dos Reis Sereno, and Antonio Belo, are the most outstanding extension workers that have been big promoter of CA since the programme start until today and with their dedication they mobilized a lot more farmers to practice CA. 'Awarding them is a gesture of acknowledging their success to become good role model for others to follow the best practices for all to better adapt to climate change. They were awarded FAO medals and received certificates for their great achievements. Let us all congratulate them for their great achievement", Mr. Smulders concluded before handing over the medals to the best farmers and extension workers. Along with these, Francisco Ribeiro, Armando da Costa (both are farmers) and Carolino Da Silva (extension worker) aslo received certification of acknowledgement for their good progress in following the examples of their colleagues above.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) through its representation office in Dili, Timor-Leste in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has introduced and tested CA technology in 76 villages in 7 municipalities of the country during the past 4 years. The programme, which is financially supported by the USAID and IBSA (India, Brazil, and South Africa) funds, has now targeted over 4600 farmers who are actively engaging in and adapting the CA techniques. The technology includes three main principles such us; no tillage or minimum tillage; use cover crops and mulching; and crop rotation and/or intercropping with legumes. Most farmers who strictly followed these principles have seen impressive results over the years and increased their maize and soy beans yields. The technology was proven very effective particularly in boosting crops resilient in extended drought situation during the 2016/2016 El-Nino phenomenon.