Bhutan imports more than half of its total rice requirement from India. But this deficiency, Agriculture officials say, can be minimised if people choose maize as an alternate diet.
Today, most people associate maize as a poor man’s diet. Likewise, Agriculture officials say, people also lack knowledge on the nutritional value of maize.
They said compared to rice, maize is not only nutritious but has less sugar content.
They also said maize can be grown in all 20 dzongkhags of the country.
“To change the social habits is not so easy. It could be a long term goal. Nonetheless, if we can improve the quality of Kharang and also diversify products, we can achieve substantial progress in putting maize into food habits,” said National Maize Coordinator of agriculture ministry, Dorji Wangchuk.
To promote maize as an alternate diet, the agriculture ministry helps farmers by facilitating its marketing.
The ministry is also putting efforts in increasing the nutritional value of the crop through various methods before processing.
Records with the agriculture ministry show the country cultivates more maize than rice.
Last year, Bhutan produced 90,000 metric tons of maize against 83,000 metric tons of rice.
