Rural youth are the future of food security. Yet very few of the young people see future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas. The National Post Harvest Sub-Centre’s recent training has given hopes to some 25 school dropouts to earn livelihoods by processing organic products in Pema Gatshel. The training has provided them with the skills and insights on food processing. This time, the training focused on processing products from ginger and buckwheat.
The participants learned to process ginger candy, buckwheat Doughnut, buckwheat biscuit, ginger pickle, and ginger wine. The participants were elated as they found newer opportunities. Taking it further, a few of the participants are planning to establish a processing unit.
“Youth these days say that there are no job opportunities. But I think it’s not true. If one is willing to start a career according to one’s skill, there are plenty of opportunities. and everywhere. We are thinking to start a processing unit to continue what we have learnt in the training,” said Yeshi Dema, a participant.
Tshogchen Samdrup, another participant said, “Even if we cannot process in large quantity for sale, we can at least process cookies to serve during annual rituals in our village. We can go organic and make cookies from the materials available in and cut down on exporting biscuits from other countries.”
The officials from the sub-centre said they will guide and provide their assistance for those interested to make food processing commercial.
“We will continue providing technical assistance in food processing and provide facilities that are available in our sub-centre till they are able to set their own unit,” said Manoj Sanyasi a supervisor at the National Post Harvest Centre.
The training was funded by organic flagship program. The program is expected to enhance organic production and its marketing and bio-inputs, serve as import substitution for agro-chemicals, strengthen the organic regulatory system and sustainable livelihood and establish diversified organic enterprises.
Thinley Dorji, Pema Gatshel
