A sustainable land management pilot project has benefited eighty percent of the farmers in Thang-Rong in Monggar to increase crop and soil productivity and generate income over three years. Ministry of Agriculture and Forests initiated the project in 2015 in Monggar and Lhuentse.
Sustainable land Management Project (SLMP) is a scientifically proven and widely accepted global initiative towards combating land degradation. In Thang-Rong, constructions of stone check dam, plantation of Napier hedgerows and bamboo rhizomes and stone bonding were some of the activities carried out as a part of the project. And locals said the project has benefited them in many different ways.
“Farmers were more aware about the importance of SLMP. After the introduction of this project, it helped farmers to stabilize their land, improved soil fertility and enabled them to effectively manage small landholding by increasing the crop productivity, ” Changa, gup of Thang-Rong Gewog in Monggar, said.
“After introducing the SLMP, we saw huge difference in soil fertility and productivity. Previously, when such project was not introduced our main challenge was rainwater washing away the topsoil from our field during monsoon. But having introduced such project, we didn’t face much problem. Indeed it improved our crop productivity,” said Dorji Lhamo, from the same village.
The gup also says that the gewog received additional budget to replicate such project to all the households in the gewog in the next two-year.
“Initially, one of the challenges faced by the gewog was that farmers were reluctant to introduce SLMP in their farm land. They thought that such project would reduce their land holding by planting Napier hedgerows and constructing stone bonding in their field,” added the gup.
Such projects were also started in Thrimshing and Phongmey in Trashigang.
Bhutan Trust Fund for Environment Conservation funded over Nu 11 M for two projects in Thang-Rong in Monggar and Jared in Lhuentse. And research revealed that forest fires, excessive use of forest resources, overgrazing, urbanization and industrial development are some of the main causes of land degradation in the country.
