Neten Dorji | Trashigang 

As the second nationwide lockdown continues, farmers in Mongar are busy harvesting vegetables, packing, and transporting them to dzongkhags such as Thimphu, Bumthang, Pemagatshel, Trashigang, and Trashiyantse.

Mongar has supplied more than 19 metric tonnes (MT) of vegetables to Thimphu, 6.3MT to Nganglam, about 7MT to Bumthang and 2.3MT to Trashigang and Trashiyangtse.

Sangay Dorji of Chali has been growing vegetables for two decades. This week alone, he made around Nu 80,000 from vegetables.

Another villager, Sither Wangmo, has been growing vegetables on her 20-decimal land.  She made about Nu 30,000 this week.

“Understanding the situation in the country, we sell the vegetables at reasonable prices,” she said.

Dzongkhag Agriculture Officer, Kinzang Tshering, said all kinds of varieties of vegetables were available in Mongar, except onion and tomato. “We collected vegetables from all the gewogs and transported them to other dzongkhags.”

He said that the dzongkhag’s aim was to produce vegetables from the lower region during the lean season.

“We have identified collection points and allowed only one person to drop and register their produce,” said Dorji Tshering, a senior agriculture supervisor of Drametse.

He said that two vegetable groups – the Gope Gomen’s Group and Waichur Phunssum Chigthuen in Drametse supply vegetables mostly to Trashigang town.