Nawang Norbu (PhD) is the Founder and Executive Director at the Bhutan Ecological Society. He is also Center Director of the Center for Climate and Sustainable Futures, a collaborative research and education initiative between the School for Field Studies in the US, the Royal University of Bhutan and the BES. Recently, he helped craft Bhutan’s RNR Strategy 2030, and also drafted, in collaboration with the Royal Government and the FAO, the national pathways to transform Bhutan’s food systems. Nawang is committed to building a just and verdant world and continues to explore the drivers and consequences of development and change.
Re-imagining Bhutanese Agriculture in a Land and Labour Constrained Scenario
Close to 60% of the Bhutanese population continue to rely on subsistence-based agriculture. This equates to a farmer feeding only herself/himself and one additional non-farming Bhutanese population. Efficiency, yield and production are constrained by low land holdings, steep terrain, and low availability of farm labour. Across the world, as countries develop, the contribution of primary sectors such as agriculture to employment, wanes. We contend that Bhutan will be no exception to this global trend. Based on the secondary data, we examine land holding patterns, rates of rural-urban migration, and generic farming challenges which constrain agriculture productivity. Eighty-two percent of Bhutan’s farming households own less than 5 acres of land (with 99% owning less than 5 acres of wetland; and 85% own less than 5 acres of dryland). Productivity on these small land holdings is further constrained by an aging farming population, and lack of farm labour, due to continued migration of youth, from rural to urban areas. Extant strategies aimed at developing farming, including disbursement of input subsidies, have not resulted in a robust agricultural sector. This is made clear by the significant rise in imports of agricultural produce over the last two decades. Given small land holdings, continued loss of farm labour, and allied factors which limit production, we propose a radical re-imagination of Bhutan’s agricultural sector to prepare for a labour constrained future in the coming decades, where a significant proportion of Bhutanese population will not engage in farming, as their primary source of income. Amongst other things, this re-imagination should provide frameworks to consolidate farms; upscale support to aggregators; promote the adoption of site-specific technology and crops; and allow for import of seasonal farm labour.