YK Poudel
Yog Raj Limbu, a farmer from Kuchinthang in Tendruk, Samtse grows vegetables throughout the year because of financial and technical assistance that came through the Food Security and Agriculture Productivity Project (FSAPP).
Today, Yog Raj Limbu, along with other villagers, grow cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes, onion, broccoli and other leafy vegetables. “The village has become one of the agricultural hubs in Samtse, with over 40 houses equipped with greenhouses.”
“The plans to establish a cold storage to manage post harvest challenges and more machinery assistance in this Plan by the government is going to help the villagers further,” he said.
According to him, the FSAPP’s assistance in providing greenhouse equipment with 80 percent cost covered has helped the farmers. “The gewog administration distributed seeds worth over Nu 300,000 in the last two years.”
Bimal Subba, a youth farmer from Samarchhu, Dagana received a water harvesting pond. “This has put an end to the struggles of irrigating my five-acre plot since later 2022.”
Similarly, Om Nath Adhikari, 28 year old farmer in Somlachen village, Dophuchen Gewog said that with the project’s irrigation channel assistance he can now earn about Nu 10,000 even during winter season. “Farming was a struggle before the irrigation channel came in the village.”
“Today, growing potatoes, cabbage, cauliflowers, broccoli and chilies has become a thriving business in the village,” he said.
Over 11,788 households spanning 29 gewogs in five southern dzongkhags: Chhukha, Dagana, Haa, Samtse and Sarpang are being benefitted through the FSAPP. The gewogs were selected by the dzongkhags based on the poverty index.
The seven year grant project under the Department of Agriculture (DoA) was financed by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) supervised by the World Bank, with Technical Assistance (TA) provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Bhutan.
The project received a total amount of about USD 12.64 million. Additionally, some beneficiary contributions from the government was invested accounting to a total value of USD 14.7 million. Started in 2017, the project is expected to end on December 31.
Rinzin Wangchuk, project director of FSAPP and chief agriculture officer, DoA, said that during the initial period of project implementation, the evaluation rating was moderate, which transitioned to moderately unsatisfactory by 2022 due to the delays caused by the pandemic. “Now, as per the latest review, the rating has reached satisfactory meeting nine of the 11 parameters with all agencies working collaboratively.”
“The project aimed at enhancing farmers groups, strengthening their capacity and improved nutrition,” he said. “Four major irrigation channels benefitting over 744 households and over 1,000 micro-irrigation sets were constructed.”
Moreover, he said, the project was established to increase agricultural productivity and enhance access to markets for farmers in selected gewogs.
A total of 17 focussed crops, namely rice, quinoa, potato, chilli, cauliflower, beans, tomato, onion, broccoli, carrot, cabbage, pea, green leafy vegetables, citrus, cardamom, ginger, and black pepper.
“As a part of the post-harvest management and market linkages component; the project initiated construction of two cold storage facilities, one each in Samtse and Dagana which will be operational soon,” he said. “Farmer’s sales outlets in five dzongkhags and buyer-seller meets were also carried out involving several agencies under the ministry.”
Updating on the impact assessment so far, Rinzin Wangchuk said that major indicators were met. “The target was set at achieving a 25 percent increase. Under productivity enhancement indicator, 19 percent increase was achieved; under volume of products marketed, 28 percent has been achieved; and under the value of products marketed, 39 percent has been achieved.”
“Earlier, the commodities in Bhutan were production-led. This has transitioned to market led production which has helped in fetching better market price for the commodities produced,” he said.
Of the total budget, USD 1.15 million was allocated to the FAO Bhutan for provision of technical assistance (TA). The assistance ended in July this year.
According to an official from FAO Bhutan, the assistance was provided on nutrition education, marketing and value chain and knowledge enhancement under long-term targets and creating an enabling environment, farm to school supply, monitoring and evaluation and data analysis under short-term targets.
With such assistance, the DoA has been able to link about 23 schools with the farmers in the beneficiary dzongkhags.
The project is managed by a Project management Unit office with implementation supported by the three Agriculture and Research Development Centres (ARDCs) namely National Centre for Organic Agriculture (NCOA)-Yusipang, ARDC-Bajo, and ARDC-Samtenling. The Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperatives is responsible for enhancement of post-harvest and market linkages.