A group of farmers in Tsakaling Gewog of Monggar has revived about three acres of wetland which was left fallow for more than a decade. They converted it into a commercial farm in July this year. They are cultivating Adzuki beans, a bushy non-climbing bean species, which is in high demand in and abroad.
The revived land is located a few metres away from the farm road. They prepared the land in July and sowed seeds last month. Today, they could be seen weeding the Adzuki beans. Agriculture officials said the product would be ready to harvest by the end of this year.
According to them, they formed the group after they received support from the government to revive the fallow land.
“We have our own fallow land and also leased land from the other landowners as well. We are thinking of continuing the farming in future as well if we get support from the Dzongkhag to fence the field,” said a farmer.
“Once we form group, we must come to do farm work irrespective of conveniences. We make a routine for the farm work. It’s also more convenient to work in a group. By making a group, we can easily sell the farm produces and also grow vegetables,” said Tandin Wangmo, a member of the farmer’s group.
According to agriculture officials, the Adzuki beans production is a part of the programme to increase the production of legume species, including beans, lentils and peas in the country. It is initiated by the Agriculture Research and Development Centres or ARDC in collaboration with Dzongkhag Agriculture Sectors. The trial programme started three years ago. And this year, the ARDC in Monggar supplied seeds to all the Land Use Certificate projects in 12 Dzongkhags. They expect to collect more than three bolero truckloads of beans from these districts.
An agreement was also made with an exporter to sell the product to Japan. The product is widely used for baking cakes and making biscuits in Japan. A kilogram of this bean will fetch Nu 200 to 300 depending on the quality. Tsakaling Gewog has highest record of fallow land in Monggar Dzongkhag. So far the gewog agriculture extension has supported the farmers in converting about thirty acres of fallow land into commercial farms.
Sonam Tshering, Monggar
Edited by Sonam
