Bhutan learned the importance of food security the hard way. As an import driven country, the fragile food system of the country was laid bare when the pandemic hit the country last year. Recognizing the urgency of food and food systems, a National Dialogue for Bhutan Food Systems is underway in the capital. The dialogue saw discussions on the immediate implementation plans for securing food systems such as irrigation and fallow land issues.
Similar dialogues were first conducted at the regional level last month. Stakeholders highlighted the issue of water shortage and fallow land. According to the Chief of the Policy and Planning Division at the agriculture and forests ministry, Karma Tshering, these problems hamper the expansion and growth of agricultural produce, thereby affecting food self-sufficiency.
“One is definitely in the area of fallow land being kept by many people because of migration and difficulties to do agriculture farming on it. The other area is irrigation. The transformation is something that we need to think about from a digital perspective, from the privatization of normal working system and how the government can play the role of facilitator and enabler,” he said.
In 2019, Bhutan spent more than Nu 9bn on the import of food items. The National Dialogue addressed means to tackle the dependency on imports.
“One way is to support the private sectors, youth, interested farmers in taking up the farming in a way that can help them with the establishment of all those megaprojects, where they are given certain subsidies. So that they can compete with the neighbouring countries,” he added.
He also said the rigid system to avail themselves of the loan from financial institutions needs addressing.
Stakeholders welcomed this initiative which gives equal opportunity to take part in decision making. The dialogue will end on Tuesday.
According to the World Bank, COVID-19 is estimated to dramatically increased the number of people facing acute food insecurity from 2020 to 2021. it is estimated that more than 250 million people’s lives or livelihood is in immediate danger because of a lack of food.
Kelzang Choden/ Karma Wangdi
Edited by Sonam
