A Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, was signed between the Drepong Farmers’ Group known as Puen Gu and Gyalpoizhing Higher Secondary School in Monggar to establish a link to supply vegetables to the school.
The initiative was taken by the Regional Agricultural Marketing and Co-operatives Office (RAMCO) to facilitate a link and promote agricultural produce of the farmers.
The deal was initiated by the Principal of the Gyelposhing Higher Secondary School, Shankar Lal dhal. Since 2009 the two parties have been working together.
The accountant of the group, Chorten Norbu, said they have been supplying to the school for the past two years without any formal agreements. He said they faced constrains in without proper documentations. “School would ask our Group to supply but sometimes when I have finished collecting the vegetables from the farmers and bring to the school they would have taken from other farmers and that was a problem. But now we will not face similar problems.”
The Principal of the School said vegetables produced by the farmers are organic. He said that they would not have to go through all the hassles of importing from India. “During the off-season they were unable to meet the demand. They used to supply only one type of vegetable all the time, like radish or only beans, and that too in large quantity. Sometimes, they would not supply at all,” said Shankar Lal Dhal, the principal.
“We started in 2009. Along with the government plan for self-sufficiency I have been encouraging the farmers to grow vegetables and to sell. It is also organic and nutritious for the students and this was my objective when I started in the beginning.”
Such kind of understanding and agreement between the School and farmers group will also be an exemplary to other groups and schools.
Meanwhile, the farmers’ group not only supplies vegetables to the school only. They also take their produce at the Gyelposhing market shed. They are one of the leading farmers’ groups under the Dzongkhag.
According to the regional co-ordinator, Bhim Raj Gurung, of Regional Marketing and Cooperatives Office in Mongar the market linkage for off-season vegetable programme is undertaken to assist the Bhutanese vegetable traders from six Dzongkhags to identify market opportunities.
The goal of this programme is to increase income of at least 1,200 households in the six eastern Dzongkhags by mid-2014.
Around 60 groups and cooperatives are expected to be strengthened and linked to various markets. The Group was established in 2008 with the initial help from RNR-RC Wengkhar.
