People of Bali chiwog under Chhubu Gewog in Punakha have stopped cultivating paddy twice a year, they do it only once and divert their energy toward vegetables now.
They are now into large scale vegetable productions, boosting their economy gradually. This is the peak season for the community to collect their vegetables and take it to the market. Today, people are mostly cultivating chillies, beans and slippery gourd locally known as ‘Olachuto’.
“The vegetable plantation works have drastically improved compared to our earlier days. In olden days, we used to plant only few chillies, but today, we plant various kinds of vegetables in our village,” said Kinley Tshering from Bali Chiwog.
People cultivate various vegetables in about one to two acres of land today. Some of them sell their vegetables in Khuruthang vegetable market in Punakha while some take it to Thimphu. according to them, the return from the sale of vegetables has been promising.
“We fetch around Nu 200,000 in a year when there is a good price in the market. We do the vegetable plantation works both in summer and winter. We also sell our fruits to generate our income,” Damcho Wangmo, from the same village, said.
According to the locals, the amount of vegetable cultivation in the chiwog is increasing annually as it fetches good amount of money. The livelihood of the villagers has been changed to better.
“Today, our people had immensely developed due to vegetable business. Some people have even constructed new houses and settled their livelihood in the community,” KinleyBidha, the tshogpa of the village added.
According to the tshogpa, vegetable cultivation had even motivated and changed the lifestyle of few couples in their community. She says these couples had once wasted their lives to drinks, giving pathetic problems to their children.
“ I have been clean for about two and a half years now. Today, our lifestyle has improved greatly by doing vegetable works like others. We generate our income by selling vegetables, this also helps in bringing up our children,” Kinley Gyeltshen, a recovered alcoholic from the same village, said.
Bali Chiwog has currently more than thirty households and almost all the people cultivate vegetables. As per the locals, their community has a potential to grow various kind of vegetables, but it affects marketing due to a lack of a farm road.
“We have different kinds of beans and slippery gourds in our community. We also grow chillies, spinach and onions. I must say that we should do the vegetable works when the country is being developed. However, we have a transportation problem due to lack of a farm road,” Tsagay, from the same village, said.
Bali village is about 1 and half hour walk from the Punakha-Gasa highway road point. They have been carrying their produce to the road point like in ancient times even now. However, they can look forward to the construction of farm road within the second year of the 12th five-year plan.
