Farmers of Langchenphu Gewog in Samdrup Jongkhar are looking forward to a harvest of quinoa this year. Growing quinoa is relatively new to the farmers there. Today farmers in the gewog are growing the crop on more than a hundred acres of land.
Quinoa is a herbal plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds known to be rich in protein and vitamin B.
A few villagers in Langchenphu gewog started cultivating quinoa in 2015. But without proper knowledge on cultivating the crop, it did not yield villagers good produce. However, last year the farmers who grew the crop produced around 59 kilograms of quinoa fetching Nu 200 per kilogram. Following that 35 households in the gewog started growing the crop. 11 farmers even formed a group to grow quinoa in mass on seven acres of land by taking a loan of Nu 100,000 and today the yield looks promising.
“Agriculture officer, Drungpa and Gup told us that they would collect and buy the crop from source if the production is good. They assured us of a good market and that we could earn Nu 200 for a kilogram. Agriculture officer also predicted that we could produce around 25 to 30 sacks which will fetch around Nu 500,000 to 600,000,” said Pema Tshering Tamang from Langchenphu gewog.
“At first we were a little worried if the crop would grow well. But now we are hopeful that we will be able to repay our loan to the Bhutan Development Bank Limited,“ added J.N Dhal from Langchenphu gewog.
Farmers also say growing the crop is much easier as compared to growing other crops. Quinoa does not require much water and weeding.
“It is easier to cultivate quinoa than any other crops. The only difficult task in growing quinoa is to make the soil loose and soft. Other works are all easy and the crop fetches good price too. For a kilogram we get between Nu 200 to Nu 300,” said J.N Dhal from Langchenphu.
“We were told by the agriculture officials that it is cultivated around September. So we did that and we will be harvesting it around the end of December and January next year,” added C.K Thapa also from the same village.
The Agriculture Extension Officer and the gewog assure that the villagers do not have to worry about the market, as the Food Corporation of Bhutan limited will be buying quinoa from the villagers.
Quinoa was first brought in the country in 2015 from Peru in South America.
