The members of the National Council quizzed the Agriculture Minister on the ministry’s plan to increase agriculture production today. The minister said due to multiple reasons the country’s agriculture production has not increased. However, he said the government has explored and implemented options to increase agriculture production.
Agriculture Minister Yeshey Penjor said due to human-wildlife conflict, arable land fragmentation, natural disasters, labour shortage and conversion of farmland for other developmental activities are some of the reasons for the slow increase in production.
“Due to lack of marketing, despite the farmers producing the crops, when the farmers do not have market assurance, their interests in farming are declining resulting in low production,” said Lyonpo.
The National Council member of Sarpang, MP Anand Rai asked what the government is doing to encourage more farmers to increase production.
“Within three years, there is an increase of only 3% in agriculture productivity. It’s a matter of concern. What has the government done to reverse decreasing trend of sown areas of cereals, increase cereal’s harvest area and investments made in the research centres to improve the productivity of the cereals?”
Lyonpo Yeshey Penjor said the government has explored multiple measures to revive agriculture in the country:
“Considering land development important, we have prioritized agriculture land development in the 12th plan. In the process of making land arable, we have developed around 400 acres of land. Terrace consolidation work on about 270 acres is also complete. Almost 522 acres of fallow land is also revived. 433 acres of uncultivable land is being made cultivable.”
To prevent the loss of crops to wild animals, Lyonpo said a budget of Nu 500 M has been allotted for electric fencing. He said the government also plans to provide 117 kilometres of chain-link fencing.
Lyonpo also said farmers are provided with pest repellants to protect their crops. And to prevent crop loss to natural disasters, he said the ministry has encouraged timely weather forecasts through mainstream media and social media platforms:
“It will help disaster management to disseminate information to the farmers. We know that there have been incidences where our crops have been destroyed by the weather. We provide timely information it will help the farmers to act accordingly.”
Lyonpo further said the government has introduced exotic crop varieties like quinoa to promote a healthy diet and enhance farmers’ income.
Krishna Ghalley
Edited by Sonam
