The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Lyonpo Yeshey Penjor who was appointed as the Minister for Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MOAF) promises to fulfill all the pledges on Sanam Gongphel with support from the people.
Lyonpo said, “To be honest, I did not expect that I will be appointed as the MoAF Minister and in fact not even a single Minister expressed their desire to become the Minister. I am very blessed and will give my 100 per cent”.
The new Agriculture Minister said, “Bhutan being a mountainous country is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change according to the scientific research published by Intergovernmental Panel on climate Change ( IPCCI ), an international panel of scientist studying climate change”.
He said, “The mountain ecosystem country will suffer more from the impact of climate change and the climate change impact will be more on water and agriculture resources. So my work experience and my knowledge on climate change are applicable for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry”.
“Particularly for agriculture, Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) has a special manifesto for Sanam Gongphel and that will be the vision for the Agriculture Ministry. DNT’s Sanam Gongphel pledges will be our priority”, Lyonpo said.
He also said, “Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for the livelihood of the entire population and more so of the people living in rural areas. In order to narrow the gap between rich and poor, the Ministry will try our best to enhance agriculture produces and look into opportunities for marketing of agriculture produces so that our farmers can earn an income from agriculture produces”.
He said, “As clearly mentioned in our pledges we will enhance marketing opportunities, but if there is excess production of farm produces with limited marketing opportunities, the government will buy it at and distribute the farm produces wherever required like central schools and hospitals”.
“But as much as possible we will provide farmers with the opportunity to earn income from their agriculture produce by making them accessible to marketing of their produce,” he added.
On DNT’s pledge to ensure irrigation throughout the year, Lyonpo said, “The problem that we have right now is that water usage or consumption is diverse. According to our manifesto we will be establishing a specific agency to resolve the challenges related to water supply for irrigation and drinking as well”.
“Human Wild life conflict is one of the major challenges faced by Bhutanese farmers and as pledged we will definitely address the issue”, he said.
“The Ministry will try to narrow the gap, enhance our food resources and we are looking forward for our people to cooperate and support the government to fulfill our pledges”, he added.
