Empowering Women through the establishment of the production farm for the

cultivation of Off Season Vegetables in Panbang.

Panbang is a place which serve as the commercial hubs for the people of the four
Gewogs of Lower Kheng (Ngangla, Bjoka, Goshing, Phangkhar). There are so many
young and enthusiastic girlswho could not continue their education after
completion of either class 10 or 12 due to poor economic condition of their
parents. Day to day struggle for living makes young girls matured enough to do
anything for their livelihoods. Like many other women around the country, the
young girls in Panbang also have the dream to begin their journey towards self-
sufficiency but it becomes impossible at times because of the lack of required
resources. The time has now reached to introducethe different possibilities of
income generation activities for our young girls in Panbangwith the
subsidizedinvestment from the government so that they will gain the knowledge
which make them capable of doing their own farm businesses. There is needs to
impart the training on advance farming technology to our young girls to develop
their skills on modern farming practices. The training will make them understand
about the prospect of improving their livelihood through integrated farming. The
people as of now has not initiated the program for the winter vegetable
productions because of the fact that there is easy access to the neighboring
Indian State of Assam who in turn supply the vegetables at very cheaper prices.
The Off Season Vegetable cultivation has a huge potentialities in Panbang since
the place shares the same climatic condition like in any other places of Assam.
The program once initiated will bring the long term impactand it will possibly
make young women more enthusiastic and confident with their skill. The
initiative, if taken positively will make our young women in Panbangmore
thoughtful towards the vision of making themselves self-sufficient. The success of
the winter vegetable cultivation program is seen promisingly guaranteed since
there are the stories of success in the neighboring places of Assam which shares
the same climatic conditions. This program will give them the impressive returns
and will have greater impact on creating the employment opportunities for our
young women.
The farmers of neighboring villages namely Sonamthang, Marangduth, Rebati,
Tungkudempa and Thileyganggenerally grow only winter paddy, although there is
a vast scope of growing fresh vegetables. Due to the lack of knowledge they did
not initiated the cultivation of off season vegetables. Replacement of the local
and old varieties with improved one and as well as making the farmers to change
their mindsetsto go for mass cultivation of Off Season vegetables will be the
challenges but it is possible. This success of fresh vegetable cultivation will lead
to self-confident of young women of Panbang to dream for establishing a bigger
integrated vegetable production unit with a plan to increase the production on
yearly basis which subsequently will larger rural income.

Description of the project:

- Vegetables production plays an important role in human diet and

subsequently the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests has released different
type of varieties which are found suitable to be cultivated in different part
of our country. In our country the inclusion of Vegetables in agriculture
is an important undertaking because unlike other agriculture
commodities, it has been realized that it can be practiced profitably at both
in large and small scale. Over and above it is found potential for being a
profitable commodity in socioeconomic development.The substantive
farming is also aimed to alleviates the current unemployment status by
creating jobs tothe surrounding communities especially many youth
who can hardly find a job after their graduation in Bhutan. The critical
changes inour country as a whole has resulted in great number of currently
unemployed youth. They arecontent with miserably low wages because of
mismatch inthe number of unemployed youth with the available jobs in the
market. As a consequence, youth are becoming the poorest part of
the population especially in the remote areas.
Project goals:

- The goal of this project is to engage the young womenof Panbang to

provide ecologically clean vegetablesto their communities while raising a
reasonable income for themselves during off season. In order to reach
this goal we want to create an off season vegetable farm run by ten or
moreyoung women as way to demonstrate and encourage other youth to
get involved in off season vegetable growing.

Objectives:
- Encourage the young women from Panbang to break away from
conventional ways of earning a livelihood and take up the vegetable
farming as a profession.

Methods of implementation:

- There project will be implemented at Pangbang under

ZhemgangDzongkhag by determiningthe number of young women whoare
going to be involved in the project. The project will start in three acres of
land which will be taken on lease with minimum land lease payment as
applicable in accordance with the location of the proposed land. About 10
or more young womenwill have an opportunity to get involved in this
project for a start and more than 1000community members and
othersurrounding communitieswill benefit from this off season vegetable
project.

The first capital budget will be spent to purchase the Green House, Farm
Tools, Drip Irrigations, water sprinklers, seeds and for development of the
land. The Projectactivitiesfor the following off seasons will continuewith the
aim to earn the income and subsequently improve the livelihood of the
youth. Thus this Project will allow us to provide PanbangDungkhag and
the surrounding towns with off season fresh vegetableson a long term
basis.
Location of the Project:

- The proposed project shall be located in Panbang under

ZhemgangDzongkhag which falls under the central part of Bhutan. The
project is proposed to cultivate farm vegetables in the off season when
the prices arehigh. The cultivation for the first year will be concentrated
on more market oriented commodities like chilies, Cauliflower, Beans,
Cabbage and Carrots. The selective young women from all adjacent villages
which aresituated in NganglaGewog will remain as the main implementer.

Youth employment.

- In our country about ten to fifteen thousand young peoplewith aged

between 18 and 30 years, comprising morethan 20% of population are
found jobless. The population is growing fast and it is expected that our
country will face the serious pressure on job creation in years to come.
-
The trend on rural urban migration will continue if we don’t work to create
the activities which can provide enough of the income at village level. Youth
unemployment may lead to various problems in manyparts of the country if
not solved. Lack of opportunities in rural areas have encouraged the youth
to migrate to urban centers. Thus, in the short term, only rural activities like
farming can effectively create occupation for most new job seekers.Modern
agriculture has considerable potential for job and wealth creation and may
absorb large numbers of youth who currently crowd the cities with
underemployment. Making well balanced choices for employment
intensive investments in agriculture activities can create immediate
short term employment opportunities which can be more easily
tapped by young people. Combined with appropriate local economic
development strategies, it can generate more and sustainable jobs.
This requires strategies to make agriculture an attractive enough option
for youth to engage in, including moving awayfrom subsistence
agriculture, and introducing commercialization and productivity
improvements through technological changes and infrastructure
support. Supporting off season vegetable projectsfor the youth
 canprovide a way forward for the governments which wantto mitigate
and prevent youth rural urban migration in the already
congestedThimphu City.

Project justification

- The proposed project will be designed as a medium size off season

vegetable farming unit, spreading over a land area of over 3 acres. Off
season vegetables, such as, tomatoes, challis, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot,
beans, peas and cucumberwill be cultivated using drip irrigation. For this
projectthere will be amix of vegetablesas mentioned above. There is a
hugedemand for fresh vegetables in the local and as well as in other
larger dzongkhags. The importance of vegetables cannot be denied due to
their nutritional value as these provide proteins, carbohydrates & salts that
are essential ingredients for the growth of human body. A large number of
our population now prefer vegetables in their daily diet due to the
awareness that vegetables provide better source of energy and
nourishment to the body.

Off season cultivation of high value vegetables will fetch better pricefor the
youth andprovide continuous supply to the communities in locality and as
well as to other dzongkhags. Higher prices can be obtained by producing
the right crops, at the right times and of better quality.

Expected outcomes:

This Project will:

- provide with off seasons vegetables to the localities and as well make
available in the markets in other Dzongkhags
- create jobs for the youth
- Raise income for the youth
- Involve more young women in offseason vegetable cultivation.
Project time frame:

Particular Proposed month of the

implementation
First Consultation Meeting with Young May 2017
aspiring Women and identify the
members for forming the group
Identification of Land for Off Season May 2017
Vegetable Cultivation
Purchase of Plastic Houses, tools, Drip June 2017
Irrigation and Water Sprinklers
Land preparation & Nursery beds June to August 2017
Raising of Nurseries of vegetables September 2017
Transplanting of vegetable seedlings October 2017
First produce of the fresh vegetables Last week of December 2017 and
early January 2018

Training of the Group Members:-

There is an immediate needs for training of the group member in Management

of off Season Vegetable Production for the purpose to gain knowledge on
advanced production technologies in the selected vegetable crops such as
Chilies, Brinjal, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Tomato, carrot and other leafy vegetables.

The training as required should be followed by visits to demonstration and

experimental plots of progressive farmers in the neighboring places of Assam,
since they have the experience of producing huge quantities of winter vegetables.
Such exposure trip to Assam will help our group member to gain skills towards
management of crops grown in their area because of Panbang shares the same
climatic condition with Indian State of Assam.

Production Process
The production flow varies slightly for different vegetables. The production flow
will be determined based on the production which can be applied to majority of
vegetable crops according to the seasons. The trail production will be started by
considering the few high value vegetable crops based on its marketing prospects.

Marketing Prospects:

Panbang is a commercial hubs for the people of lower kheng which consist of four
Gewogs and it is administratively governed by the Dungkhag Administration.
There is great demand of vegetables all year round and the price is high at the
start of the seasonand at the end of the season. If off season vegetables are
grown, high prices can be fetched.Vegetables can be cultivated in off-season, with
the induction of better irrigation system andwater conservation.
The productions of vegetables all around the year will enable the youth fullyutilize
their resources and supplement their income from off season vegetable growing.
The major source of livelihood for the household is the income gained through
sale of oranges which is followed subsistencefarming and there are high levels of
poverty.

Conditions for selection of members:

- The members will be totally from the young girls and will be specifically
recruited among the school dropouts and there will not be male
representation.
- Membership will not be allowed if she was once the member to previous
unsuccessful group.
- The project will run independently without allowing the interventions of
many government institutions. Only the coordinator and donor will have
the right to decide on the implementation process.
- The service of the extension agent will be limited to certain requirements
and the EA will not have rights to interfere at any cost.
Demand Forecasting and Sales Projection :( Quantity in Kilograms)

Particulars 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Remarks

Tomato 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Chili 700 1400 2000 3000 3500
Cabbage 1000 2000 2500 3000 3500
Carrot 500 1000 2000 2500 3000
Cauliflowe 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
r
Beans 700 1000 1500 2500 3000
Cucumber 1000 2000 2500 3000 3500
Radish 1000 2000 2500 3000 3500
Mustard 250 300 500 700 1000
Green
Broccoli 500 700 1000 1500 2000
Bunching 500 700 1000 1500 2000
Onion

Projected Expenditure and income:

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Exp Incom Exp Income Exp Income Exp Income Exp Income
e
1.5m 0.800 1.35 1.100 0.800 1.500 0.60 2.000 0.50 3.000
0 0 0

Budget Requirement: (One time Investment)

HYBRID SEEDS
Particulars Quantity Rate Amount
Tomato 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Chili 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Cabbage 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Carrot 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Cauliflower 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Beans 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Cucumber 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Radish 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Mustard Green 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Broccoli 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Bunching Onion 20 Packets 200.00 4,000.00
Total 44,000.00

Tools and Equipment

Particulars Quantity Rate Amount
Hoes 20 Nos 260.00 5,200.00
Spades 20 Nos 240.00 4,800.00
Wheel Borrow 5Nos 1,500.00 7,500.00
Pick Axe 20 Nos 260.00 5,200.00
Gardening Rakes 20 Nos 170.00 3,400.00
Axes 20 Nos 400.00 8,000.00
Watering Can 20 Nos 230.00 4,600.00
Shovels 20 Nos 240.00 4,800.00
Digging Tools 5 Sets 1,500.00 7,500.00
Pruners 10 Nos 1,200.00 12,000.00
Gloves and accessories 5 Sets 1,500.00 7,500.00
Total 70,500.00
Poly House 6 Nos 96,000.00 540,000.00
Drip Irrigation - - 240,000.00
Water Sprinklers 10 1500.00 15,000.00
Total 795,000.00

Human Resources: - To cover up the labor charges before the first marketing:
Particular Total Month Costing per Total Grand Total
month Employment
Manpower 8 Months 3,000.00 20 480,000.00
Requirement
Total 480,000.00
Other Expenses:

Particular Quantity Rate Amount

Expenses on 1 40,000.00 40,000.00
Consultative
Meeting
Group Formation 2 40,000.00 80,000.00
Exposure Visit to 1 100,000.00 100,000.00
Assam
Training 1 150,000.00 150,000.00
Land Lumpsum 400,000.00
Development
including Fencing
Total 770,000.00

Summary of the projected expenditure:-

Particulars Amount
Seeds 44,000.00
Tools and Equipment’s 70,500.00
Poly Houses and Irrigation 795,000.00
Labour 480,000.00
Other Expenses 770,000.00
Total Project Costing 2,159,500.00

Name of the Project Women’s Off-season

Vegetable Production
Group
Place Panbang, NganglaGewog
Dzongkhag Zhemgang
Starting Date May 2017
Estimated Establishment Nu. 2.100 Million
Cost
Source of Funding Loans and Grants(Yet to
Confirm)
Mission Empowering Women
though irrigated vegetable
Production and Marketing

Project Developed by:-

LekiDrakpa
Rural Livelihood Project
Ministry of Agriculture and Forests
Zhemgang: Bhutan
Email address: lekidrakpa406@gmail.com
Mobile No. +975 17120533/77679871