HOME
TIMOR
COVER INTRODUCTION
FIELD
REPORT PHOTO
ESSAY
My first answers of the trip! The soils along the Northern reaches
of the Island are very thin to non-existent. The road from Dili to
Los Palos are full of this kind of scene: wind-eroded and rain eroded soils.
So that is why there are no crops planted along this area. Inland
from the sea a few kilometers the land flattens to rolling hills of essentially
sand. I was often reminded of Okanagan Valley area of British Columbia,
Canada.
If it is not wind that is taking away the highly erodable soils, it
is (as in this case) the rain. This photo reminds me somewhat of
the Badlands of Drumheller, Western Canada. God - am I in Canada or in
East Timor? It is beautiful scenery but it is hell for agriculture.
'Maybe', I thought to myself , 'the combination of poor soils and the year
of droughts brought on by El Nino explain the food shortage?'
Previous
Next