Success down on the farm

Hiromena Jose Elu is from East Timor. Here he's working on his composting pit.

Thanks to Oxfam, Hiromena and his wife have learnt about terracing, and vegetable gardening including planting, composting and organic pesticides. This has increased their food sources (more vegetables), and also provides income for the months of the year when their garden cannot produce crops.

He says: “We can plant vegetables and fruit so we can sell at the market and make some money. We can plant other fruit that previously we did not have here.

“We can make $3 or $4 everyday.”

The hungry season before Oxfam came was four months, but this has been reduced to two months since they have been trained in the new techniques.

Their vegetable garden produces crops for 2-3 months of the year. They can save the money they make from selling during this time to purchase vegetables when they have none at home.

Your gifts of Train a farmer and seeds make a huge difference to farmers like Hiromena.