00:00 Even ordinary people like you and me can play a big role in food sufficiency.
00:05 A Ramon Magsaysay awardee in Timor-Leste knows this too well and has empowered thousands of
00:11 youth and communities in the field of agriculture. Ego Lemos joins us from Dili. Welcome to the
00:19 program, sir. Thank you so much, Manisha. And congratulations, first of all. It must be
00:28 amazing to have your work recognized this way. But beyond the prestige,
00:33 how will the Ramon Magsaysay award help you in pursuing your cause?
00:37 It's actually, I don't know about this award until the 31st of August when it's been announced.
00:50 But I feel very honored and thankful to the board of trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay award,
00:59 the board of trustees who chose me to be one of the Ramon Magsaysay awardees for 2023.
01:08 Well, you were introduced to permaculture almost 25 years ago, and you've said it changed your life
01:17 and also the lives of those you help. So briefly tell us what is permaculture?
01:22 Yeah, permaculture is, has been started in Australia over
01:31 1970s. But the permaculture itself is a kind of a philosophy and the new name that
01:42 it's coming from towards permanent agriculture and culture. But looking into the system itself,
01:51 it's already exists in every country where based on the traditional knowledge and traditional
01:58 practice of our community around the world. Only permaculture, only looking into a sustainable
02:06 aspect of the practices that can be continued, relevant to today world.
02:17 Okay, well, you put up a youth program more than 20 years ago, right? So why is it important to
02:24 pass on your knowledge of permaculture to young adults? And how were you able to empower them to
02:31 become food sufficient? Yes, I think Timor-Leste is
02:38 the case is same as the other country around the world, including Asia. But what we've been trying
02:48 is to address the food issue by incorporating the permaculture garden into school curriculum,
02:58 which is called collaborate with Ministry of Education. And now it's become compulsory subject
03:06 across the whole country, especially for the primary school. And the second is we're engaging
03:14 so many 1000 or 1000 of young people in water restoration and food production activities as
03:24 well. So because Timor-Leste is a very tropical countries, and we have very less rain. So we try
03:33 to capture the rain water as much as we can to recharge back to the ground instead of letting
03:40 it's flowing from the mountains straight to the ocean, which is causing a lot of problem
03:47 also to the environment like a landslide, erosion, and even causing flooding. So by introducing this
03:56 technique, apart from reviving the springs, and the community can access to the water to grow
04:03 their food, you know, grow their animal or grow some fish, but also it's a contributing to
04:13 ecological recovery in the area where we're doing the intervention. So right now,
04:20 right now Primitive has been working over 500 community across Timor, and we've been reviving
04:29 over 300 spring so far. Wow. Well, you know, you mentioned earlier that your school garden program
04:37 has been integrated in the national public school curriculum. Why is it important to
04:43 teach agriculture in schools? And how do you make it appealing to the youth?
04:48 Yes, I think the main objective of the permaculture garden in school is not just about
04:58 teaching the kids about growing, but the school garden become a living laboratory for every school
05:06 to, in order to teach any subject. So shifting from passive learning inside classroom,
05:13 into an active learning outside classroom, so that the kids can involve in education more active,
05:20 and the student can, you know, learning with the teacher, it's more collective rather than,
05:28 you know, teacher center, just using the textbook. So the school garden is also,
05:35 it's really a great way to use as a tool to teaching any science, apart from growing the food.
05:44 And the second objective of the school garden is also to inspire the parents of every community
05:55 where the school are, to grow their home nutritious home garden, which is organic,
06:03 and also using natural based solution. All right. Well, you, you know, you say that
06:11 indigenous traditional knowledge in agriculture is important. You don't really espouse too much
06:17 dependence on modern technology. Why is that? And shouldn't technology be embraced?
06:25 Well, the technology is good, but sometimes for me, the appropriate technology that
06:34 created by the local community, it's more relevant, and also in terms of cultural appropriate,
06:43 and also a close ecologically appropriate. But when we introduce a new technology, which is
06:51 make the community more marginalized and the technology itself, like kind of new,
06:59 and we need, you know, maintenance, and also cost a lot to get that
07:06 the technology itself. And of course, we need to pay someone to operate that technology.
07:13 While the traditional, the appropriate technology, which is created by the local community,
07:22 it's run by the local community using natural based solution without depending on external input.
07:32 Well, you know, you've been very successful with your programs in Timor Leste, but the Philippines
07:39 is struggling with food sufficiency at the moment. The country relies on imports,
07:44 food prices are rising, and Filipinos are going hungry.
07:47 In your opinion, what must the country do to be able to address this issue?
07:53 Well, I think this issue is a very complex issue, not only Philippines, but also Timor Leste,
08:04 also facing the same issue. And also, I believe that every country around the world today also
08:11 facing this kind of issues. But what I have to say that it's actually not the food crisis. But
08:20 according to, for instance, in Philippines and Timor, I can say it's a rice crisis, because
08:28 our community, it's depend too much on rice as the staple food. That's our problem. If we could
08:36 diversify our diet and eating variety of food based on the seasonal and based on the different
08:49 microclimate, I believe that this issue will be less causing our community. And second, because
09:00 of this climate change issue and the war in Ukraine and so on, it's the food prices will
09:07 continue to increase, will never decrease. So therefore, every country in the world needs to
09:14 be prepared to grow what they eat and eat what they grow. That's the only solution that we could
09:22 address this issue for the future. Excellent advice. Well, lastly, you are also a musician
09:28 who sings about the causes you're passionate about. Could you give us a sample very quickly?
09:37 I think, for instance, in Timor, we used to eat a variety of food, especially carbohydrate. We eat
09:46 mainly root crops. We eat corn. We eat rice. But today, because of globalization, now our diet is
09:56 depending too much on rice. So therefore, Timor-Leste, because I explained earlier that
10:04 it's a tropical country, we have less rain, less water. So we cannot afford to produce rice to feed
10:12 the whole population of the country. So the only solution we could do is to diversify our food
10:20 production so that we have to value whatever food that we grow in the country. That's the only
10:26 solution we could address. That's okay. Well, thank you very much, Ramon Magsaysay Awardee.
10:33 Eugenio Lemos joining us from Timor-Leste.
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