To help support a community initiative to achieve food sufficiency and increase production, His Majesty The King granted building materials, seeds and seedlings to the people of Maedtabkha Gewog in Chukha as a Soelra for the community.
Representatives from the Office of the Gyalpoi Zimpon handed over His Majesty’s Soelra to the people of the gewog yesterday.
The people of Maedtabkha Gewog, which has 15 villages within it with 119 households, came together with an initiative targeted towards increasing the gewog’s agricultural production.
Farmers agreed to work together towards increasing the annual production of vegetables, rice, maize, wheat, buckwheat, mustard, and other crops by implementing changes at the individual household level.
Farmers want to achieve food sufficiency in the crops that they are already growing, and also increase their production capacity for commercial agriculture.
“His Majesty granted us so many Soelra. We are very happy and blessed. We remain very grateful to His Majesty. This Soelra will further motivate us to work harder and reap good harvest this time,” said Dagom.
The project is expected to reduce dependence on imported food, increase household incomes, and improve the overall health and wellbeing of the community.
“His Majesty’s Soelra will support our gewog development plans which are mostly focused on agriculture development and improving livelihoods of farmers. So we are extremely thankful to His Majesty,” Maedtabkha Gup, Passang Tshering, said.
Towards this end, farmers will be given support to develop kitchen gardens, as well as to grow certain cash crops.
They will also receive training in plant protection and preparation of bio-pesticides, to promote organic farming.
The people of Maedtabkha Gewog regard the initiative as something that would contribute towards the overall socio-economic development and growth of the country.
