The Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF) will link a total of forty-two schools and hospitals to the farmers’ groups and cooperatives, as a new initiative. This is expected to solve marketing issues for the farmers while the hospitals and schools will have easy access to farm produce.
The initiative is one of the many targets the ministry has set as part of this fiscal year’s Annual Performance Agreement (APA) with the government, which was signed today.
“Rice, maize and vegetable self-sufficiency, these are some of the major outcomes of the agriculture and forests ministry. And for this, we have certain deliverables. Number one is improving the market access, for that, we have one specific indicator on linking the schools to the farmer’s group and linking the hospitals to the farmer’s group. Again the important thing is enterprise development. So there will be about four major enterprise development. If it is a production-related, it’s going to be mass-produced,” Sherab Wangchuk, the Senior Planning Officer of MoAF, said.
The MoAF plans to increase food and nutrient sufficiency, improve the rural economy and promote sustainable management of natural resources through various activities. For this, the ministry will increase dairy production, strengthen agriculture infrastructure and farm mechanisation.
The ministry also plans to train about 300 youth on-farm management, piggery and new technology adaptation.
Meanwhile, this fiscal year’s APA were reviewed by the prime minister prior to signing. As a result of that, the ministry’s APA this time has targets that are achievable and are focused on the people.
“When ministries assign higher weight on the success indicators, it only means that it is a priority only for the ministry. But if we really dissect the actual people who are involved in producing cereals, producing fruits, meat. These are the farmers, not the ministry. So all this happens at the ground level. So what government is interested in is to know what is the ministry’s input in increasing, for example, the cereal production. So we are focusing on input if there are any policy intervention required if there are any strategic solutions required,” Nim Tshering of Government Performance Management Division, PMO, said.
The ministry has allocated a budget of Nu 3.2bn for this fiscal year to achieve all the priorities and plans.
