Following a greenhouse construction drive initiated in the district in 2015, people living in Gasa enjoy fresh organic vegetables more often than not. Today, the majority of its households own a greenhouse each.
59-year-old Tshechu visits his greenhouse almost every time he prepares a meal. Inside the structure, he grows a variety of vegetables. When BBS met Tshechu, he was left only with spinach inside his greenhouse as it coincided with an off-season for rest of the vegetables.
Considering that he constructed another greenhouse to grow paddy seedlings for transplantation this season, the benefits of a greenhouse seem immense.
“Earlier, it was only during summer seasons that we enjoyed fresh vegetables. During winter, we had to manage with the dried ones. But, after learning about greenhouse from the agriculture officials, we now get to eat fresh and organic vegetables for most parts of the year,” said Tshechu, a farmer from Khatoed Gewog in Gasa.
Farmers also use greenhouses for plant nurseries.
“It has been two years since I constructed the greenhouse. I use it to grow vegetable seedlings for transplantation because the cultivation process is faster. I do grow some vegetable as well but it is for self-consumption,” said Namgay, from Khatoed Gewog in Gasa.
“We used to sow vegetable seed in the open fields. The result was not as good as sowing inside a greenhouse. These days, we have more varieties of vegetables to consume. We even manage to make some income from the surplus harvest,” added Kinzang Thinley, also from the same gewog.
The project has already covered Laya and Lunana Gewogs, where it is proving equally successful.
“People were dependent on their horses for livelihood. But later, with the construction of motorable roads, this business got affected. People started taking interest in farming activities. With this, the request for greenhouse plastic sheets started increasing annually,” said Tshewang Gyeltshen, the Agriculture Extension Assistant in Khatoed Gewog.
The District Agriculture Sector spends over Nu 7,000 for plastic sheets to cover one standard size greenhouse. And before it is distributed, farmers have to construct the structure.
The office targets to achieve 100 per cent greenhouse coverage in the district within this Plan.
Changa Dorji
