SNV Bhutan shares experiences in organic agriculture with international experts, Italian farmers and other interested parties.
Knowledge Brokering: Earlier this year Dr A Thimmaiah, SNV organic farming specialist, was invited to attend two seminars in Italy, organized by Agribio, where he was asked to share his knowledge of low cost agriculture technologies initiated in Bhutan with other international experts, with the local farming communities and those interested in organic agriculture in Italy. The participants included grape growers, wine manufacturers, wine analogists, agronomists, vegetable farmers, university students and NGO’s.
Organic farming in Bhutan targets smallholders in marginal areas. Access to markets is a major problem for the smallholder and this is compounded by the small quantities of marketable produce. However the growth of ethical consumerism in the developed world has led to increased opportunity for imports of environmentally and socially certified goods produced by poor farmers in developing countries. Among the “ethical trade” items, organic food has been one of the most rapidly growing areas.
Agribio, Italy is interested in providing market support for projects of SNV in different countries. In Bhutan SNV is supporting the SHCC sector. Farmers with holdings of less than 1 hectare are trained in low cost agricultural technologies following organic principles wherein all inputs for crop production and protection are produced on farm, utilizing local resources. Thus the Agribio initiative would be a great opportunity to market products from Bhutan and also it would help different value chains to find better markets for their products.
In the discussions following the seminars Agribio agreed to develop a separate certification to support small farmers in line with Fair Trade standards. The cost of certification would be borne by Agribio, Italy and they would buy such certified products and market them in their Bio-shop outlets in Italy.
To read the full report on the seminars and Dr Thimmiah’s talk on “SNV’s experiences on Biodynamic Agriculture in Bhutan” click here.