Bhutan: Urban agriculture products face no dearth of market
Chief coordinator of urban agriculture initiative, BB Rai, said that marketing was at the centre of the initiative.
By Choki Wangmo
Kuensel
July 27, 2020
Excerpt:
While farmers across the country are facing difficulties to find a market for their agricultural products, members of the urban and peri-urban agriculture initiative in Thimphu are confident in marketing their products.
Some of the groups have already started selling vegetables in their locality, DeSuup training programme and dratshangs, among others.
The initiative which rolled out in May has 26 acres of fallow land converted to agricultural land across different areas like Begana, Bebeyna, Kushuchen, Changtagang and thromde areas in the capital. There are 34 groups, mostly laid-off workers from the hospitality sector due to Covid-19.
Jinpa Phuntsho and his group have cultivated more than an acre of land in Begana, from which 18 kilogrammes of cabbage, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, and other crops were sold last month. He said that they grew more varieties to reduce the risk of market non-availability.
Due to newly developed land, he said that the group faced challenges with uncontrolled weed. However, mulching methods helped. “Out of 10 plots of land, six percent wasn’t mulched. The crops which were mulched didn’t need intensive care.”