When Covid-19 pandemic was first reported, everyone expected normal life would resume soon. But the grip of the pandemic went beyond everyone’s imagination, which caused unprecedented loss of jobs, shrinking of economies and demonstrated the fragility of the interdependent world.
The pandemic seriously affected the economy with increasing fiscal deficit. It reduced revenues from services and tourism industries which affected the household income, and dwindled micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and many industries, and plunged the economies into recession. The lower revenue collection and higher recurrent expenditure led to greater fiscal deficit. With declining domestic production and export earnings the GDP started to decline to low to negative growth.
Most apparently the pandemic highlighted the fragility of food systems and cautioned developing countries to consider agriculture with highest concern. It is because food security and economy are inextricably interlinked and share a reciprocal relationship. Only a nation that enjoys food security is able to pursue gainful activities that improve economic conditions of its people, while a healthy economy augments the country’s ability to ensure a sustainable supply of nutritious food. But of the two, food security is crucial for developing countries and when we ensure food security and resilience to climate change, we also ensure advancing economic interests of the people.
The pandemic made food more expensive as it imposed transport restrictions and higher costs for import and export. The farmers were unable to transport and sell their produce and the pandemic made difficult for farmers to obtain basic inputs critically needed for crop and livestock production.
As the pandemic restrained the international cross border movement and trade, the export of agricultural products, particularly the fresh products, was disrupted and it directly diminished the rural household income. With the restrictions on movement most countries were caught unaware of having low food security stock and the fresh perishable products are not supported by cold chain.
Moving food across the border required high sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards and good practices for protecting human health and food safety. But the bureaucracies, due to lack of much needed skills and infrastructure, were unable to carry out export and import at a normal pace ensuring safety standards complying to sanitary and phyto-sanitary requirements.
During pandemic, the low food security reserves propelled insecurity, and the inevitable lockdown plunged the livelihood of small land holding farmers into jeopardy and the poor urban population were pushed to the brink of hunger. The pandemic made evident that a resilient domestic food production and supply is inevitable and unfolded the fragility of the food security and thrust the nations around the globe to recognize the importance of the domestic food supply.
The pandemic taught hard lesson that very nation must ensure food security and high degree of food self reliance and self sufficiency, and enabling domestic industries for minimum economic security to absorb shocks of similar pandemics in future. Keeping this in view, it is essential in post pandemic that we focus on food sovereignty and job creation along the food chain, and such a policy must be immediately adopted to unlock the constrained economic situation.
In the post pandemic what is really needed is a strong commitment to support farmers who are contributing to the food security and economy of the country. The strategic policies must ensure increase in production of agricultural products and a steady increase in income of the farmers. The new post pandemic policy should begin with increasing farm productivity with adoption cutting edge crop agronomy and climate-smart technologies. The precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) must play a great role in increasing production of vegetables and fruit crops, while crop diversification, agroforestry and the regenerative agricultural practices should enhance sustainability, climate change adaptation and resilience.
The business as usual doing more of the same will not yield much and it could be a painful experience. The new normal policy should not only sustainably increase agriculture production but also increase farmers’ profit and resilience against climate change and environment related disasters. In the first place the new policy must improve the supply of agricultural inputs (seeds, plant nutrients and fertilizers, precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation), plant protection products and equipment, and labour saving machines, equipment and tools). It essentially requires strategic partnership with private sector with deregulation of selling of agricultural inputs. With the new policy, the cost of production must be brought down to ensure competitiveness in the market and profitability of farmers endeavour.
On the product side we must establish a public sector corporate body mandated to procure farm produce at market price that guarantees profit, execute food processing and export. Investment must be made to have the state of art export facilities of fresh products and the execution of export must be incentivised.
We must recognise that Bhutanese agriculture is characterized by small production units at distant locations. In such given situation, it is necessary to promote collective farming to create volumes to economically justify transport to distant markets. Just as dairy cooperatives in India, the crop farmers should be incentivised to come together for collective farming, not necessarily contract farming, for creating economies of scale both for inputs and outputs marketing.
For the post harvest operations including procurement, logistics, processing and export, the investment could come from private sector if these areas of operations are sufficiently incentivised and regulations are made business friendly. As we move into the future the strategic public-private partnership will become inevitable.
While the pandemic is still around, the farmers are also suffering the brunt of the climate change as well. Besides the loss of local species and crop varieties and disregards to traditional local food crops is another concern which has raised the vulnerability of agriculture to climate change. It indeed calls for integrating and promoting traditional food crops including a wide variety of millets and root crops, and others through modern culinary technology and awareness on their nutritive values and other benefits.
Besides food, the pandemic highlighted a number of social issues including housing, minimum wage, income gap and job which are the essential elements of an inclusive economy which if not managed well will be responsible for creating imbalances and disharmony in the societies. It is because agriculture is unprofitable the rural youths come to urban centers for job hunt where the house rent alone takes most of their earning.
It is known that the Bhutanese agriculture and allied industries have great potentials to contribute to economic recovery and self reliance in food and nutrition but it must be recognised at the national policy level.
The resilience to climate change must come from technological innovations such as modern crop agronomy, precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation), integrated soil fertility and plant nutrient management, crop diversification and agroforestry, regenerative agriculture, and integrated pest management.
Having economic growth consistent with climate change adaptation and richness of environment is a major challenge. Growth by itself is not enough as a country may achieve growth with poverty alongside seriously impacting the environment. It tells us that in agriculture the development interventions must be inclusive leaving o one behind.
The country’s economy and ecology cannot be stable and resilient when the role agriculture is not well understood and investment is not guaranteed. It is undeniable that farmers need better and more comprehensive support system. It is unfortunate when the investment much needed to be made is often termed as subsidies and freebees and thus denied. In the national interest the subsidy on inputs, price support for the produce, and incentives for food processing and export must be considered as investment for enhancing food security, rural economy, and resilience to climate change and environment, and it must be justified at all levels.
There is no doubt that agriculture plays a vital role in ensuring food security and supporting recovery of our economy. Ever since the vast potential to produce and export fruits and vegetables, and processed food, providing employment for youths have remained unexploited.
Seemingly we must realise “Sustainable, profitable and resilient agriculture” that produces healthy food keeping environment clean and provide dignified livelihood to our farmers, who constitute more than half of our population. The organic concept should be seamlessly integrated without placing itself in a juxtapose position opposing agronomically possible modern agriculture focused on intensive and efficient use of resources, high productivity and profitability and having low environmental footprint and climate resilience. The policy should seek that agriculture is not only ecologically safe but also cost effective and competitive with high labour productivity. Naturally the policies and programs must revolve around sustainability, profitability, resilience to climate change and low environmental footprints.
The modern technologies and crop agronomy have helped Bhutanese farmers to increase production and improve their livelihood. The potato varieties grown by the Bhutanese farmers are accessed through International Potato Research Centre (CIP) based in Peru. The composite maize “Yangtsepa” is from CYMMIT (International Wheat and Maize Research Centre) based in Mexico and it has increased the production of maize in the eastern region. A number of high yielding rice varieties provided by IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) based in the Philippines have increased the production paddy in mid and low altitudes areas. A large number of innovations made by our agriculture research and development centres have supported our agriculture production. Considering the vital role of research in agriculture development, the decreasing investment in research with lost focus and weakening relationship with international research centres is a concern and it needs to be upscale and strengthened for the benefits that can be reaped for the nation. For this to be happened the public research and support services must be directed to realign their objectives and mandates, and better management with increased resource allocation.
It is indeed difficult to explain technically why we are importing vegetables from India instead of exporting. It simply presents our lack of conviction and mission approach. The altitude variations of Bhutan provide opportunity for growing all kinds of vegetables throughout the year at one of the other locations. With little investment and right tweak in the policy we can not only achieve full self sufficiency in vegetables but also export a variety of vegetables in large quantities across the border to India throughout the summer months.
By nature the vegetables are fresh and perishable, but the value chain is not supported by cold chain construed of pack house, cold stores, and transport and logistics. The grading and packaging complying with necessary sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards is lacking, and export facilities for fresh products are not developed, which are handled in the same manner as hardware and thus responsible for deteriorated quality and high wastage. It is necessary that we thrust on quality of the produce for being competitive in the market.
For quality regulation and certification we rightly have BAFRA in place. By Act it is mandated to regulate quality and ascertain set standards of all agricultural export items. But it is under the administrative umbrella of MOAF to which it provides the regulatory services. It certainly calls for regulatory reform and de-linking of regulatory bodies from the administration of mainstream service providers.
The high production cost of Bhutanese agriculture is contributed by high cost of inputs. The sky rocketing cost of fertilizers is yet to be brought to the anvil of policy decisions which is dominated by organic endeavour. With regards to whether or not we use fertilizers, the views of agronomists, soil and plant nutrition experts and environment expert must be taken into consideration, which is yet to happen. It is known that phosphorus in Bhutanese soil is low and for a good harvest of potato in economies of scale we need to apply phosphorus in the form of fertilizers as SSP and DAP.
Farmers have great demand for hybrid seeds which is either in short supply or the right kinds of hybrids are not made available.
For growing vegetables during winter months at mid and low altitudes and during early spring months in high altitudes, the precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) is a determining factor and it is yet to receive due attention for the provisions of the policy support as till date we understand irrigation means flooding the fields. For this reason the precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) is still continued to be promoted with secondary priority and almost all the investments on irrigation are channelled to flood irrigation (flooding the field) schemes. It is high time for us to acknowledge that flooding the fields of upland crops is a wrong agronomy and it has many disadvantages, and above all there is shortage of water during winter and spring seasons when water is scarce.
The institutional rigidities are the impediments for having the right policy and investment priorities and they need to be moulded and the mind set needs to be restructured for orientation towards efficiency and impact. The tendency must not be to do more of the same but instead we should be strategically doing more with less. For us in the post pandemic the self reliance in food and profitability of agriculture with high ecological standards and resilience are nonnegotiable national issue.
The reform should begin with the way the support services are provided to the farmers. For instance a civil service department would not effectively enable a farmer in distant location to sell the produce instead the farmer would be happy if a buyer comes and buys his produce at his farm gate. To this there has to be a body with a mandate to procure from farmers irrespective of volume and location or distance. For agriculture development it is inevitable for the policy makers to consider production, procurement, price and profit (the 4Ps) in an integrated manner. In the post pandemic it is a must that the investment made on agriculture development must be measured against these 4Ps in terms of impact as a result of investment, in a balanced and inclusive manner.
Given the nature and characteristics of Bhutanese agriculture establishing a public sector corporate body that actually buys all agricultural produce at every Gewog level from every farmer is impending.
Two things we have to have in mind for making investment decision at the national level. Firstly the climate change is going to increasingly impact crop production, and the frequency of climate disasters is going to be higher resulting in economic and social consequences. The issue of food and nutrition, and health and wellness are interconnected and the best entry point is agriculture and not the other way round. Secondly, we must enhance our competitiveness in the market by bringing down the cost of production, increase productivity of the resources, and thrust on quality of our products by developing export facilities, and by facilitating and incentivising export.
Traditionally, mandarin orange, cardamom, and ginger were major export commodities which over the time their productions have dwindled. During 1970s Bhutan used to export huge volumes of mandarin orange but since then its production fell to the preset non significant level. The free fall in production is attributed to increasing drought like water stress situation during winter and early spring months, declining soil fertility and increasing pest problem. If these three problems are managed optimally with precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation), and integrated soil fertility and pest management, the mandarin orange production will be a huge industry of our country contributing to the economy of the country but it cannot be left to the farmers alone.
The pandemic seriously affected the export of fresh vegetables and the scarcity of fertilizers is going to affect the production of vegetables particularly the potato, if timely supply of fertilizers at affordable price is not maintained. If the supply of good seeds (hybrids), fertilizers, safe pesticides, precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) is not assured, and a corporate body to procure farm produce is not instituted, and the seamless export with high food safety standards is not ensured, it is definite that agriculture development will not happen.
The experts say food self sufficiency is possible. If we believe what experts say; what we need to do is to make smart investment decisions. But the first thing we need to do is to the answer the question whether we want to be self reliant on food or not. For the right answer we need to sincerely and seriously debate at the highest decision making body. If we want to be self reliant in food we need to make conviction and there is no reason why we cannot be self reliant and self sufficient in food.
Bhutan is endowed with wide range of crop diversity. Our farmers had been traditionally growing many types of millets which are healthy food and also climate resilient. But we are yet to come up with definite programs. Similarly many types of sweet potato are grown, which is a cherished food item even in developed country like Japan, which also export sweet potato. But we are yet to recognise sweet potato as a food crop, and there are many other crops which construe our traditional food basket. Leaving local traditional food crops aside, if we run around with non-native alien crops of elsewhere having no definite food policy the failure will be always at hand.
To realize self reliance on food which is technically feasible, and to exploit the potential of horticulture for supporting the economy of the country, an Act on agriculture is deemed inevitable.
The purpose of the perceived agriculture Act should be to improve the life of all citizens and support the national economy through comprehensive and systematic implementation of the policies on food, agriculture and rural areas.
Such an agriculture Act should be the means for establishing basic principles and services, and it should empower and make the parliament accountable with greater role in ensuring self reliance in food and resilience in the events of climate change disasters.
The Act should put pressure on the elected government to weigh in favour of the domestic food production and supply against the efficiency and cost-benefit of import from India or the global supply chain. The Act should bind us to reduce dependence on import of food from the increasingly fractured global food supply chain.
An Act alone can prevent us from leaning towards cheap food import and instead it will support investment on domestic food production and food industries creating jobs providing dignified employment opportunity to rural youths.
Acknowledging the increasingly unpredicted exigencies of climate change, the agriculture financing must evolve beyond low interest credit having rigid schedule of repayment. With the Act in place, the schedule of payment of the agriculture credit must be flexible with provision to wave off interest and defer the payment schedules in the event of the climate change triggered disasters.
The Act, as envisioned herewith, should usher in affordable crop insurance scheme as a strategy for adaptation to climate change which is increasingly threatening food production. To kick start an affordable crop insurance scheme a pool of public fund will have to be made available in manner in which BDBL initially came into existence.
What is important is to have necessary mindset and accept that agriculture is a public sector undertaking where in farmers and all service providers are equal stakeholders for increasing production of food and horticultural products for export.
The Act must enable to pursue a policy of producing healthy food having clean environment, high labour productivity, and high return on investment and profitability in agriculture. It should ensure that farmers, irrespective of location and volume, are able to sell their produce at right market price.
The hide and seek being pursued for having organic agriculture has been successfully hazing decisions on use of fertilizers including micro-nutrients and pesticides including insecticides, fungicides and herbicides (weedicides).
It is time now to demystify the misconceptions on fertilizers. Potato crop when grown in large scale regularly need large amount of Phosphorus, the key constituent of our own DNA, and it is low in our soil. Farmers apply Phosphorus in the form of SSP and DAP, as fertilizers, which are manufactured from the naturally occurring phosphate deposits which are sparsely located on earth crust and the deposits are depleting at a fast rate. The story goes the same way for NPK, a compound fertilizer containing Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. The story of Urea, the Nitrogen fertilizer, manufactured from abundantly occurring nitrogen in the atmosphere has little different story which only when used in excess potentially impact environment and for us that ‘excess level’ is not visible even in the distant horizon. It is interesting to note as well that Urea is a monocarboxylic acid amide and a one-carbon compound, and it is derives from a carbonic acid.
Decades ago the Boron, a micronutrient for crops, was found deficient in our soil and it was seriously affecting apple production. It was corrected with the supply of Boron in the form of Borax, as fertilizers, along with other fertilizers used by apple growers. Boron deficiency symptom is now appearing on cauliflower in certain locations where farmers had been growing cauliflowers for long time. Vegetable crops require good amount of macro nutrients (NPK) and sensitive to micro nutrients [Boron (B), Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn), Molybdenum (Mo), Copper (Cu), and others] deficiency in the soil.
For decades we are buying fertilizers from the local fertilizers vendors across the border in India where fertilizers are highly subsidized and controlled, and export is not allowed. Because fertilizers are not directly exported to Bhutan by the fertilizer companies in India, the local fertilizers vendors across the border in India makes the hay out of it at the cost of Bhutanese farmers. This is the reason why the price of fertilizers multiplies several folds when we bring in from across the border and we do not get fertilizers when fertilizers are in short supply in India.
Keeping the above in view as why fertilizers are needed, and how they are brought into the country, a bold and transparent decision on fertilizers use is impending. It is now time to decide whether or not we use mineral fertilizers and import them formally and make it available to the farmers at an affordable price.
Irrigation for vegetables and fruit crops is yet another area of wilderness. We irrigate vegetables by flooding the fields just as we do to the rice which is incorrect and damaging. It is incorrect to irrigate vegetable and fruit crops by flooding the field. It is utterly wrong, inefficient and wasteful method.
For vegetables and fruit crops, the precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) is the right method of irrigation which has many advantages. It shaves water by up to 70% and therefore enables us to irrigate more area with the same amount of water. This is what we exactly need to grow vegetables during winter and spring months and irrigate orchards and plantation crops.
The precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) is the right thing to promote for growing vegetables during winter and spring months at mid and low altitude areas. It is with precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) we can upscale the production of vegetables and fruit crops, and remedy may other associated problems.
A combination of precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) with fertigation (applying complete plant nutrients directly to root zone with irrigation water) and integrated pest management has the key to revive the mandarin orange production to its glories of 1970s.
Precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) calls for integration of agronomy and agriculture engineering to work as a team since it is not a exclusive irrigation engineer’s job rather it is field led by agronomist. It requires conveyance of irrigation water upto the field but the water is not let to flow into the field as in case of conventional practice of flooding the field, as is the case in wetland rice cultivation. The entire policy and program for precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) have to be charted and fresh investment policy and plan have to be made. It is an area of providing incentives (as public investment without labelling as subsidy) to farmers for having precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation) for growing vegetables, fruits and plantation crops.
It will be compelling in the post pandemic situation to provide price support to the agricultural inputs including specific farm machines for not letting cost of production go through the roof making agriculture unprofitable and unjustifiable profession.
The vital pivot missing in the Bhutanese agriculture is a corporate body that physically procures farm produce across the country and at every Gewog level. If it is established, it alone will encourage farmers to produce more and if it is not established, it will be the missing link that will continue to arrest agriculture development.
For selling the farm produce, advisory support service is provided to farmers by the Department of Agriculture Marketing & Cooperatives (DAMC) of MOAF with assumption that there is market and farmers able to sell their produce not realizing that in situation like ours we need a corporate body with inclusive mandated to procure, warehouse, distribute, process and export.
It is due to the nature of Bhutanese agriculture a government supported public sector Corporation, having the combined responsibilities of APEDA and NAFED of India, is inevitable.
On having discussion on this topic it is often put forth that FCB is there to procure farm produce from the farmers and already doing the job of such perceived and proposed corporate body and DAMC is there to provide advisory services. Decades have passed with same good old idea but the problem has remained alongside of good old idea. If the same understanding has to be pursued, the FCB has to mould and set up procurement facility in every Gewog and procure every food and exportable item, having subsumed in it the mandates of APEDA, NAFED and FCI of India.
Such a corporation when instituted or FCB in new manifestation actually procures everything a farmer has for sale assuring remunerative benefit to the farmers. Having a network of warehouse and cold chain the corporation should operate “Commodity Exchange” providing virtual information on the stock and whole sale price to the domestic and export market. By having “Commodity Exchange” in place and functioning, it will provide opportunity for e-procurement, distribution and sale, and export.
For having such a corporation, the government will have to make capital investment for having specific tailor made procurement facility in every geog, and a network of warehouse, pack houses, cold chain and logistics at regional and national level.
In the post pandemic there will be constraints of resources and in such situation the wisdom would be call on private sector as strategic development partner. The policies for engaging private sector as usual must not be formulated in isolation as the past experiences have not yielded much credible impact. For good a joint platform as perceived as early as in 7th FYP when a ‘horticulture development board’ was proposed to deliberate the whole gamut of topics for private sector participation in horticulture development.
The success in post pandemic resource constraint situation hinges on how smart we are in our investment decisions. We will be wasting much of the resources if we do not act smart no matter how hard we work. At its best we must invest in crop agronomy, precision irrigation (drip and spray irrigation), crop diversification, agroforestry, procurement and price support, export and import infrastructures, and incentives for export. Because many of the agricultural export volumes are small, government must consider providing direct support and incentives.
For doing the best and being ahead we need knowledgeable and skilled human resources willing to take up challenges as the success will always be determined by competent human resource. It is because only a competent human resource is able to perform functions, solve problems, and set and achieve objectives. Taking note of it we must first enrich human capital for ringing about change in the content of development policies to wisely manage the economy and ecology ensuring equitable distribution of wealth.
For enriching human resource all stakeholders must come together and forge their way ahead for agriculture is a cross cutting horizontal issues. There must be a collegiate relationship between College of Natural Resources (CNR), MOAF and RCSC. The MOAF must work with CNR to ensure that CNR produces right kind of graduates and working with RCSC, MOAF should ensure creation of adequate civil service positions necessary for MOAF. In parallel, the MOLHR must coordinate with MOEA, CNR and various TVET centres and ensure producing technically skilled youths to take up wide range of enterprises in the field of agriculture production and allied enterprises.
Finally, we can have food secured and resilient nation only when we continuously empower Bhutanese farmers, and support agricultural enterprises and private sector players engaged in agriculture.
Tashi Delek
