A five-member team from the Asian Farmers’ Association (AFA) carried out a Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) – Civil Society Organization (CSO) country visit to Bhutan on 15-23 September 2019.
The mission team, consisting of AFA Secretary-General Esther Penunia, Asia Pacific Farmers’ Program Coordinator Lany Rebagay, AFA Cooperative Development Manager Jojo Ebron, AFA Operations Manager for South & Central Asia Amir Islam, and GAFSP CSO Asia representative and Technical Adviser Raul Socrates Banzuela, conducted courtesy calls and meetings with implementers and partners of the Food Security and Agriculture Productivity Project (FSAPP) including SEs, PMU, NGOs and farmer participants as well as the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Cooperative (DAMC) of Bhutan. They also visited selected sites of FSAPP and DAMC to interact with local farmers.
During their visit, the mission team met with:
- the FSAPP Monitoring Officer and consultants
- DAMC Director-General Thinley Wangchuk, Pema Wangchuk, and Sonam Choden
- CSO officers namely Tarayana Foundation Secretary-General Chime Paden Wangdi and Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAOWE) Founder/CEO Damchae Dem
- Agri Extension Officers Ugyen Wangmo and Dechen Lhamo and Kinley Bidha, a farmer from Haa District
- Livestock Extension Officer Kipchu and Livestock Farmer from Haa District
- Livestock Extension Officer Purna Jaesun and Phurba Tshering Tamang, a livestock farmer from Phuentsholing
- Doe Doe of the National Plant Protection Center and Pelden Wangchuk of Nazhoen Food Processing Unit
These activities are aimed at:
- getting updates about the FSAPP implementation from SEs, PMUs and selected farmer participants/farmers groups involved in the project,
- getting feedback and recommendations from key FOs and NGOs about FSAPP and cooperative development processes in the country, and,
- gaining a better understanding of the government’s work in strengthening cooperatives as well as the situation of farmers cooperatives in the country.
The team also paid a courtesy call to the honorable Sanam Lyonpo, Yeshey Penjor, Minister of Agriculture and Forests of Bhutan.
The AFA team with Sanam Lyonpo, Yeshey Penjor, Minister of Agriculture and Forests of Bhutan
The GAFSP was established at the World Bank to finance food and nutrition security projects for developing countries. The GAFSP has approved an $8 million grant from the public sector window of GAFSP to implement the FSAPP, to support productivity enhancement of food crops for food security and nutrition, along with market access enhancement of key high-value crops. The project was launched in September 2017 and is expected to benefit 52,000 peoples, including 3,000 schoolchildren in 16 schools through the school feeding program.
The AFA is the support organization for the Asia CSO representative of the GAFSP Steering Committee. AFA provides technical, administrative, and logistical support to the CSO Asia representative to facilitate:
- consultation among constituency CSOs,
- dissemination of information to constituency CSOs, and,
- dialogue between representatives and other members of the Steering Committee.
The GAFSP-CSO mission team had a debriefing session with FSAPP and top officials of DAMC. The Mission report is currently being finalized and will be shared to GAFSP constituents soon. ###
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