Project News

JICA and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF) have launched the new technical cooperation project in agricultural fields "Integrated Temperate Fruit Crops Promotion Project" on 14th March, 2022.

This project aims to realize commercial agriculture by promoting temperate fruit cultivation throughout the five-year cooperation period in three Dzongkhags (Thimphu, Paro, and Haa) in the western regions. Implementation Agencies of this project are Department of Agriculture (DoA) of MoAF, National Seed Centre (NSC) in Paro, and National Centre for Organic Agriculture (NCOA) in Yushipang.

As the first step of activities, the project will establish necessary environment including farmlands, orchards and facilities for quality fruit seedling production, and build capacity of quality fruit seedling production and orchard management among the staff of implementation agencies. Then, the project will strengthen production and supply of quality temperate fruit seedlings and orchard management through technical training for Dzongkhag Agriculture Officers, Gewog Extension Officers, and target farmers. The Project will also support target farmers develop the capacity to engage in farming as a business by introducing the "Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment & Promotion (SHEP) Approach" to the Research Outreach Programme (ROP) implemented in the previous project called "Integrated Horticulture Promotion Project in the West Central Region (IHPP)" (2016 - 2021).

This SHEP approach has been introduced to Bhutan for the first time through JICA's Knowledge Co-creation Program in 2020, and 23 government officers conducted their action plan to execute SHEP approach in their sites. The project will incorporate the concept and device of SHEP approach for the first time in the technical cooperation project in Bhutan's agricultural field based on the issues and results of pilot activities as above. The project will lead a small success of the field level in the target area as the first step, accumulate them, establish a "Market-oriented ROP" that matches actual situation in Bhutan, and promote activities by the MoAF to implement "Market-oriented ROP."

Since the project started due to arrival of long-term experts in Bhutan, the experts conducted a series of courtesy calls on the Minister, the Secretary, Director of DoA, and Director of Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperative of MoAF from the end of March to beginning of April in order to share outline of the project. After that, the experts visited NSC in Paro and NCOA in Yushipang, which are implementation agencies of the project, and introduced themselves to their counter-parts officers. The experts also exchanged the view for the outline of the project and concept of SHEP approach. In addition, they visited facilities of both centres and collected basic information to establish necessary environment for project activities.

The online kick-off meeting was held on 11th April 2022 in attendance of MoAF, Economic Development Department of JICA headquarters, JICA Bhutan Office, and Implementation Agencies.

The meeting was chaired by the secretary of MoAF, and he showed his hope to enhance production and supply of quality temperate fruit seedlings and horticulture farmers' income through the implementation of the project, as well as the contribution to "A Million Fruit Trees Plantation Project," which is newly launched by the Royal Government of Bhutan. After that, Chief advisor of this project gave an overview of the project and the SHEP approach, and attendances exchanged their opinions for full-fledged implementation of the project.

Meeting with counter-parts officers of NCOA, 5th April 2022

Visit to facilities of NCOA, 5th April 2022

Meeting with counter-parts officers of NSC, 8th April 2022

Visit to facilities of NSC, 8th April 2022

Secretary of MoAF & Chief Representative of JICA Bhutan Office at the kick-off meeting, 11th April 2022

Attendances at the kick-off meeting, 11th April 2022