The project was completed. This project has yielded the following: ?produced? 17 trained farmers in integrated agricultural method, home industry and harvest management. GEF SGP grant was spent on purchasing supporting equipment that would be sustainable used by PUSLAWITA to train other farmers (such as library collection, computer, and diesel generator); it has effected participants in improving their skills as lack of information on agriculture management; the training program in PUSLAWITA will continue to exist, although modifications may occur - to respond to current need of farmers - especially since the curriculum is also developed with increasing the community?s welfare in mind.
A training institution such as this one will always be needed. However, this funding provided a good opportunity for the program to review its policy, including whether or not such an activity as this one should be supported by GEF SGP. In this particular case, PUSLAWITA is a parochial organization that receives - to a certain degree - guaranteed funding from their church-related organizations. Furthermore, the area that PUSLAWITA use for training is much different than the area that the majority of the farmer-students will actually be working on (i.e. PUSLAWITA sits on a very fertile hill with a year-round supply of water from the springs, as opposed to most parts of Timor which only receive 2-3 months of rain-water annually). Staffing at PUSLAWITA may also pose a question on the local Timorese involvement in the program, as most of his staff came from Java. In the future, projects such as this may perhaps be supported only in kind (e.g. networking, exchange of visits, etc.)