• RNRNewsletter

A bimonthly publication of the Ministry of Agriculture & Forests

Vol. VI Issue No. X www.moaf.gov.bt 1-15 July 2018

INSIDE

ICIMOD field visit

Page 3

The Ministry's Week

Page 6

ICIMOD-Bhutan Partners’ Day in Agriculture

Karma Loday with pictures by Tenzin Wangdi, ICTD

May 16, Thimphu: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and its Bhutanese partners organised Partners’ Day with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF), Bhutan. As one of the founding members, Bhutan contributes to ICIMOD’s core support and has its MoAF as the focal agency.

The event was graced by the

Honourable Foreign Minister, Damcho Dorji. It was also attended by ICIMOD’s board members from its eight regional member countries of Hindu Kush Himalayan region namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan as well as independent board members, development partners, observers, experts and Bhutanese partners. This year’s

Partners' Day meeting mainly focused on responding to the mountain development challenges, Bhutan’s 12th five year plan and ICIMOD’s fourth Medium Term Action Plan (MTAP).

MTAP IV of ICIMOD revolves around the theme sustainable and resilient development in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. According to Deputy Chairperson

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of ICIMOD, MTAP IV will be focusing mainly on regional cooperation to bring strategic impacts and results in the field of poverty reduction, enhancement of resilience by reducing physical and social vulnerability and enhancement of ecosystem services.

Nidup Dorji, the Vice Chancellor of Royal University of Bhutan (RUB), said that with the help of ICIMOD, Bhutan can work towards improvement of agriculture related enterprises by improving the education quality and making it relevant to the region and encouraging the entrepreneurs.

He also mentioned that RUB has put an effort in building the culture of research and introducing programmes of master’s and PhD of climate

studies.As a part of the event, four new publications were launched namely Organic Agriculture Development Strategies: Roadmap for 12th five year plan and beyond, Bhutan Tourism Product Development Guidelines 2018, Tourism Action Plan for Haa and Land Cover Change and its Eco-Environmental Response in Nepal.

With the overall aim of seeking

programmatic convergence and synergy between the 12th five year plan of Bhutan and ICIMODs MTAP IV, a special high- level session was also organised to strengthen the alignment of ICIMOD’s activities with the national priorities of Bhutan. The session also focused on Bhutan-ICIMOD partnership and ways to further meaningfully enhance the partnership. The deliberation also highlighted the way forward for convergence, policy uptake, and up scaling of outcomes for strengthening sustainable mountain development in Bhutan.

ICIMOD aims to serve the region through information and knowledge generation and sharing by fostering regional cooperation to find integrated and innovative solutions to critical mountain problems.

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ICIMOD field visit

International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) organised its 49th Board of Governor (BOG) meeting in Thimphu, Bhutan from 14th – 18th May 2018. The BOG

meeting begin with a two day field visit to Haa Dzongkhags with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF), Bhutan. ICIMOD’s delegates were joined by its

partners and officials from MoAF. The field visit began with a visit to cNational Research Centre for Riverine and Lake Fisheries to study the developmental aspects of cold

Compiled by Karma Loday with pictures by Tenzin Wangdi, ICTD

1-15 July 20184 RNRNEWSLETTERA bimonthly publication of the Ministry of Agriculture & Forests

water fishery and the centre’s four functional units namely, fishery resource management unit, fishery ecology and environment unit, trout breeding centre and input unit.

Board members also interacted with Dasho Dzongdag and the Administrators of Haa Dzongkhag and shared about the Kangchenjunga Landscape Conservation and Developmental Initiative and also discussed about tourism action plan for Haa.

The second day continued a visit to Chela Pass, the highest pass on Dantak Road between Haa and Paro.

The delegates visited Bhutan Climate Observatory Centre at Chelela and inaugurated newly installed Aethalometer which is located at 4100masl at Chelela.

The newly installed machine will be used to study the Black Carbon concentration issue and its impact on glacier and the rising temperature.

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Please submit your articles for RNR-Newsletter at communication@moaf.gov.bt

What is GAP?Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) are a set of principles, regulations and technical recommendations applicable to production, processing and food transport, addressing human health care, environment protection and improvement of worker conditions and their families.

What Does GAP foster?

1. Food Safety- Healthy food, not contaminated and of higher quality to improve nutrition and food consumption

2. Environment- No contamination of water and soils, rational handling of agro-chemicals,concern about biodiversity

3. Security for People- Improve worker and consumer conditions, enhance the Agricultural Family welfare & improve food security

4. Animal Welfare- Animal care & adequate feeding

JOKES

Soybeans are an important ingredient for the production of crayons. In fact, one acre of soybeans can produce 82,368 crayons.

D i d y o u k n o w ?

How To Grow Strawberries

Farmer Sonam was driving his tractor along the road with a

trailer load of fertiliser. Thinley a little boy of eight was playing

in his yard when he saw the farmer and asked, 'What've you got

in your trailer?'

'Manure,' Farmer Sonam replied.

'What are you going to do with it?' asked Thinley.

'Put it on my strawberries,' answered the farmer.

Thinley replied, 'You ought to come and eat with us, we put

ice-cream on our strawberries.'

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Agriculture curriculum to be strengthened in Schools

Published by:Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD)Ministry of Agriculture and Forests Post Box: 1095, Thimphu-BhutanTel. (PABX): 02-323765/321142Fax: 02-324520Email: ictd@moaf.gov.btWebsite: www.moaf.gov.bt

AFACI Program Workshop on Horticulture held

Agriculture program for Thimphu students concluded

The Ministry's week

The participants from 14 member countries attended

the workshop to share the information on post-harvest and good agriculture practices in horticulture from July 4-6. The workshop strengthened support from Asian Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (AFACI) in the safe production of horticulture crops and post-harvest

technologies applicable in Asia. Bhutan has been implementing nine projects through the grant from RDA, Korea. The projects range from sustainable farming technology, building information system for pest management, plant and animal genetic resources, good agriculture practices, seeds and agriculture information technology building.

On July 9, a memorandum of understanding signed in

2013 was renewed to strengthen the Agriculture for Food Security (AgFS) curriculum in middle and higher secondary schools between the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Ministry of Education and Royal Education Council.

The AgFS curriculum started in 2013 in class IX-XII was successfully completed with the

More than 202 students from 17 schools in Thimphu

successfully completed a week long summer student engagement program in Agriculture from July 2-9. The program covered various activities at eight sites under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests including at the Tashichho Dzong Greener Project, Agro-

Forests Project, RDC-Yusipang, Kawang Gewog and National Mushroom Centre. Each student group and escort teacher shared their experiences and challenges faced during the program at the end. The students also requested to organise a similar program in Thimphu’s all 36 schools in the future.

first batch of class XII students appearing board exam in 2016 and scoring good aggregate percentage for tertiary education. It was then introduced in 29 middle secondary schools which later increased to 49 schools with 2500 students opting the subject. During the last six years of pilot phase, the AgFS has been one of the popular optional subjects among the students.