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To build a greener economy, Bhutan wants to go organic by 2020
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Reuters
Posted: January 17th, 2016
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-bhutan-emissions-farming-i...
Farmer Phub Zam, 55, is in a hurry. Monsoon rains have hit ... and Zam is rushing to harvest her broccoli. "Of all my vegetables, broccoli is the most sought after," she said. Each kilogram sells for ... 15 to 30 cents more than broccoli imported from neighboring India, because her produce is grown without the use of chemicals. After decades of subsistence farming, Zam went organic four years ago. Now she grows 21 crops on her 1.3-acre farm, [earning] three times more than she made before. Zams success is part of Bhutans plan to support sustainable farming as one key to build a thriving green" economy. In 2011, the government launched the National Organic Program, which aims to make the countrys agriculture 100 percent organic by 2020. Zams switchover came when a team of officials from the agriculture ministry told her they were offering women farmers in her village free training in organic farming, including composting and selling the compost for a profit. After attending a three-day training course, Zam started her home compost heap. Today, she sells about 60 kilograms of compost - made of grass, leaves, cow dung and sawdust - every two months to tourist resorts and other buyers. Zam also uses the compost at her farm, including in the two greenhouses she bought and installed with an 80 percent subsidy from the government. In June, officials announced that the government had so far provided 176 greenhouses to farmers and planned to install 650 more.
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