9 families who lost sole bread earners now rebuild their lives

On May 10, 2014, nine families in remote Lungdurbi village Zhemgang dzongkhag, lost their sole bread earners in a tragic boat accident.

Driven to despair, one woman from the affected families took her own life last year.

The Rural Livelihood Project, which focuses on the poorest of the poor households of the Sarpang and Zhemgang dzongkhags, is helping the nine families rebuild their lives.

According to the officer with RLP, Dawa Drakpa, the project is aimed at uplifting the living standard of those poor families through social protection schemes.

Five families were found in favor of rearing crossed jersey cow and three families were in need of CGI roofing for their homes.

Another three families were found in favor of growing cardamom where a total of 3.5 acres of land will be brought under cardamom cultivation through the RLP project.

One family interested in growing citrus was helped in procuring seedlings.

Dawa Drakpa said that most of the poor households prefer to take up dairy farming since it is less labor intensive and the dairy products like cheese and butter can be easily sold within the village. The income earned from the dairy products is expected to help the farmers in educating their child and such intervention at household level is expected to improve the livelihood of the family significantly.

Cardamom cultivation has huge potential for generating cash income in future considering the suitable agro-climatic condition in the area.

Of the 11 families, two households was found desperately in need of Corrugated Galvanized Iron (CGI) sheets for house roofing.

Record shows that Langdurbi chiwog consists of 72 households with one empty household.

The total population is estimated to be around 929 with 472 males and 457 females. All houses of the chiwog are electrified. Officially the chiwog is a day’s walk from the gewog centre.

Farmers also grow upland paddy, wheat, foxtail millet and buckwheat but relatively at minimum level.

Vegetable cultivation particularly potato and chili is another important source of livelihood. Livestock contributes next to agriculture for livelihood of the people of Langdurbi.

The Langdurbi community depends on maize cultivation for their livelihood as of now. 20% of their livelihood comes from maize cultivation although maize is not marketed for cash income.

Livestock is another very important source of livelihood of the community contributing 15% to their livelihood.

Horses are the main source of cash income contributing 13%. Day labour is second important source of cash income for the farmers. More than 50% of the farmers mostly male set off to work as day labourers at various construction sites when the agriculture season is off.