Bangkok – Having lost 30 per cent of its crops this year to drought, plagues and locusts, East Timor will need 15,000 tons of emergency food assistance during the upcoming "lean season,

Twenty per cent of East Timor's people need food aid after severe droughts and locust plagues battered crops in the troubled young nation, two UN food agencies say.

Pius Nimaepa inhaled his clove cigarette smoke deeply when Tempo visited him at the end of March.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – On a rainy afternoon, Murtatiningsih, 37, spoon feeds her young child in front of her house in Bayur subdistrict, Rajabasa district in Bandarlampung.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Hundreds of residents of Cipanjalu village in Bandung regency, who have been struggling to survive since 90 percent of them lost their jobs three years ago,

Andri Setyawan, Jakarta – The Indonesian Farmers Association (HKTI) has welcomed the government's measure in extending the ban on rice imports.

Ubud – Emerald rice paddies once stretched for mile upon mile alongside the road that winds through scenic Ubud on Indonesia's Bali island, but today just glimpses remain as hotels, res

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Eleventh-hour lobbying paid off for the government Tuesday when most House factions refused to back a proposal to probe the controversial rice import policy.

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Jakarta – Indonesia's production of dry un-hulled rice is forecast to slide 2 per cent to 53.10 million tons this year from last year because of a decline in harvest area.

Sebastien Blanc, Jakarta – The United Nations started distributing rice seeds and farm tools Friday in Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province, hoping to restart agriculture amid the salt

Jakarta – The Dec.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – With no protection from the government, farmers in Lampung are having a difficult time surviving a time of economic hardship.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugar cane farmers in the West Java regency of Cirebon threatened to boycott the supply of sugar cane to sugar producers unless the government raise

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – Up to 150,000 civilians in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province face starvation because of a new tactic of destroying irrigations systems on which farmers rel

Jakarta – Delays in planting some 413,343 hectares of rice in a number of areas have resulted in a drain of farmers' income sources.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugarcane growers and workers at sugar plants in Cirebon, West Java, rallied on Friday to demand the government reduce sugar imports blamed for the

Tim Dodd, Dili – Commodity markets are doing no favours for East Timor, which becomes an independent nation next weekend, with prices for coffee, its most valued agricultural product, l

Joe Cochrane, Ermera – The farmers of Ermera are fiercely proud of their long tradition of growing East Timor's finest coffee, but these days that is not enough to fill their stomaches.

Bronwyn Curran, Baucau – In a good month Carlos Bovida makes 20 dollars selling sweet potatoes and bananas on a lonely road, winding through the sparse mountains of this half-island nat

Lewa Pardomuan, Kuala Lumpur – A rally in palm oil prices is fuelling widespread looting in plantation areas in Indonesia, with armed gangs targetting mainly state-owned farms.

About 19,800 coffee farmers in Timor Lorosae have to swallow the bitter pill because of sharp falls in worldwide coffee prices.

Mark Dodd, Aileu – When it came time to harvest new varieties of sweet potato in an agriculture project in Aileu, an East Timor mountain town, the response was overwhelming – the farmer

Mark Dodd, Gleno – Ironically, it is neglect which has produced independent East Timor's first major export crop: world-class organic, forest-grown coffee.

Ati Nurbaiti, Dili – The rains finally poured in late December, too much in some areas for a good corn harvest.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government plans to develop two million hectares of new paddy fields outside Java to secure rice supplies for the nation's growing population.

Shawn Donnan – Ever since aid groups and multinational organisations including the United Nations and the World Bank entered East Timor last year, the nation's coffee industry has been

Simon Montlake, Jakarta – The Indonesian government is under pressure to consider increasing protection for domestic rice producers, after protests by farmers over low prices paid for u

Mark Dodd, Ermera – The coffee trees in this prime highland growing area are laden with berries, promising aficianados of arguably the world's finest arabica renewed supplies from East

Sonny Inbaraj, Dili – All's not well in the urgent distribution of food and seeds in East Timor, before the heavy monsoon rains expected this week makes planting impossible and roads im

Shoeb Kagda, Jakarta – In a major shift in economic direction, Indonesia's newly-elected President Abdurrahman Wahid has asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to focus more on agr

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Ermera – In a country where most people grow just enough rice and corn to slake their hunger, Jose Madeira Ximenes never consumed any of his crop.

Susan Sim, Pidie – Village chief Idris Yahya started packing when he heard the machine-gun fire early Friday morning.

Susan Sim, Banda Aceh – One year after the Indonesian military apologised for past abuses and pledged to withdraw troops, a humanitarian crisis is brewing in Aceh as a renewed crackdown

Atika Shubert, Dili – Civil war, 23 years of Indonesian military occupation and more than 300 years of Portuguese colonialism have bequeathed an unexpected boon to the tiny territory of

Jakarta – Coffee beans are travelling under armed guard in Indonesia amid growing looting, traders said yesterday.

Jakarta – President Soeharto denied press reports yesterday that a food shortage has forced people in Lampung and Java to eat cassava for their daily meals.

Jakarta – A total of 273,653 hectares of rice field disappeared between 1980 and 1996, with an average of 17,000 hectares lost everyyear.