2024-04-182024-04-182024https://hdl.handle.net/10883/23135CIMMYT manages Intellectual Assets as International Public Goods. The user is free to download, print, store and share this work. In case you want to translate or create any other derivative work and share or distribute such translation/derivative work, please contact CIMMYT-Knowledge-Center@cgiar.org indicating the work you want to use and the kind of use you intend; CIMMYT will contact you with the suitable license for that purposeAGRICULTURAL SCIENCES AND BIOTECHNOLOGYArticle10.48130/cas-0024-0006Despite many efforts over two decades of independence, Timor-Leste's cereal production and agricultural productivity have decreased dramatically, reflected by high food insecurity and rural poverty. This paper analyses the country's current agricultural mechanization efforts to guide future actions that aim to stimulate growth through sustainable mechanization. We combined information from scientific publications, governmental and international cooperation communications, and data collected during field missions to assess the situation. Our study provides recommendations to reverse a failed tractorization campaign and presents a comprehensive overview of a strategy, in alignment with a proposed and renewed national agricultural mechanization policy, that would enable the modernization and sustainable intensification of current food production systems in a nutrition-sensitive, climate-smart, economically viable, and gender-inclusive fashion. The recommendations suggest a focus on scale-appropriate solutions that respond to upland smallholder farmers' capacities and consider good rural transport options, with the first steps to redirect the situation already taken through a technical cooperation program between FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture. Beyond this, a reform of the current government mechanization hire schemes is needed: integrated approaches, as found from business model analyses and training exercises during field missions, are needed, that entail context-specific solutions for targeted rural communities, with special attention given to participatory extension, inclusive co-validation of technologies, and private sector-led business model development around mechanization service delivery. Finally, the authors hope the presented way forward can serve as a roadmap for smallholder farmers and developing nations in similar conditions elsewhere in the world.SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTUREMECHANIZATIONAGRIFOOD SYSTEMSAGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATIONPOLICIESOpen AccessSustainable Agrifood Systems