Local governments will pursue the Agriculture Economic Contingency Plan. According to the ECP document released earlier this month, local governments will get a total budgetary grant of Nu 200 M on top of the 12th Five Year Plan allocation.
The agriculture contingency plan aims to boost agriculture and livestock production by providing a range of support measures such as technical assistance and additional support for marketing, value addition, and providing year-round connectivity and road access.
The contingency plan prioritises commodity production based on national priority, the volume of imports, and production potential. The prioritised commodities are cereals such as maize, buckwheat, wheat, vegetables such as chilli, onion, tomato, brinjal, cauliflower and beans, mustard oil seed, lentils, fish, milk and meat like chicken and pork. Rice is, however, excluded from the prioritised list mainly to diversify the Bhutanese diet which is predominantly rice-based.
In terms of vegetable production, the contingency plan will prioritise winter vegetable production to reduce imports and meet the demand for the northern dzongkhags where winter vegetable production is not feasible. As per the Bhutan Trade Statistics 2019, from nearly 15,400 metric tonnes in vegetable imports last year, more than 7,400 metric tonnes were imported during the months of August to February. In light of this, the local governments of Chhukha, Dagana, Pema Gatshel, Samdrup Jongkhar, Samtse, Sarpang, and Tsirang, where winter vegetable production is feasible, will allocate half of their Agriculture ECP resources amounting to Nu 40 M for winter vegetable production.
Meanwhile, the Nu 200 M budgetary grant will be shared among local governments based on production capacity, households engaged in agriculture, and constraints faced by households. Besides, each local government will layout independent marketing plans for their products, including marketing within dzongkhags, connecting products to institutions like schools, hospitals, and processing plant and marketing beyond dzongkhags in case of surplus. Farmers groups, displaced employees, youth groups and cooperatives among others will receive the priority to produce the commodities.
The Farm Machinery Corporation Limited will carry out the production of prioritised commodities at a commercial scale and also work with farmers through a contract farming modality, which involves agriculture production carried out on the agreement between the buyer and farm producers. Similarly, the Bhutan Livestock Development Corporation Limited will operate at a commercial scale through a contract farming system with youth groups, cooperatives, and farmers to produce milk, chicken, pork, and fish. This will ensure a reliable supply of prioritised commodities including meat which is in high demand. At 13.5 kilograms per person, the per capita consumption of meat in the country is the highest in South Asia. As per the Bhutan Trade Statistics, in 2018 alone, Bhutan imported Nu 4.6bn worth of meat, an increase of 16 per cent from the previous year.
Sonam Pem
