Farmers of Tashithang village under Gesarling Gewog in Dagana haven’t been able to produce good crops for last eight years. Cardamom plants are drying up. Harmful pests are destroying other cash crops. It is a difficult time, they say, with their only source of food and income drying up.
But not even once in eight years, have any RNR extension official visited the village to assess the damage or conduct a study.
Durjhodhan Thapa, 61, from Tashithang village under Dagapala Gewog has more than seven acres cardamom field. In the past, he used to get 40 sacks of cardamom a season. The number has reduced to five sacks a season, these days. “We are yet to see our gewog’s agriculture office,” he said.
Other crops like maize, potatoes and oranges shares similar fate. Tshetrim Wangmo, a farmer, said the agriculture ministry supplied them the seeds. “But the yields are very poor. The agriculture official in our gewog just distributed us seeds but never came to our fields. His office is in Gesarling and he has never come to Tashithang.”
Another farmer, Pema Deki, said they are occupied most of the time with farm works to go and visit the RNR office in Gesarling.
“Our potatoes are destroyed by insects and we don’t even have some left for self consumption,” said Chandra Bahadur, another farmer of Tashithang.
The RNR extension officer at Gesarling, Ashok Kumar Pradhan, says he has been transferred from Samdrup Jongkhar recently and hasn’t been able to go for a field visit. “It’s been only three months since I got transferred to Gesarling. I have visited Tashithang once but since I had to attend training I did not get time to visit every household.”
Gesarling’s mangmi, Phurtempa Sherpa, said they have reported the issue to the authority concerned about a year back. “The agriculture official had come up with the idea to burning the cardamom fields. But the farmers refused saying cardamom is their main source of income.”
