The Bhutanese Leading the way.
It is a known fact that the Wobthang Organic Wonders (WOW) faced hurdles due to higher transportation costs and its inability to penetrate the local market. During the 3rd Meet-the-Press session held yesterday, the Prime Minister (PM) Tshering Tobgay said that the wait is finally over, as the government has plans to turn WOW land into apple orchards.
PM, “The Wobthang Organic Wonders isn’t a failure because there are thousands of acres of land, everyone out there is putting in the effort, and the only main thing needed is marketing. Nothing can be done if there aren’t places to sell the produce grown in the project.”
PM said that there are a lot of things that can be done with WOW, as the farm lies in an ideal altitude to grow apples, especially now that quality of apples is affected in places, such as Paro and Thimphu due to a lack of professional care backed by science.
Thorough research on the best variety of apples suitable to be planted in Wobthang is planned. PM said one of the best varieties of apples is the Baxter apple which is well known in the neighboring countries of Nepal and Kashmir, India.
Expertises in the field need to be called back to the country once again and take care of the high-quality apple planted in the thousands of acres. The people who will be in charge of taking care of the apple orchard will be the youths.
According to PM, cooperative farm will be put in place, and if there are youths who are willing to stay there for a longer duration, the help needed will be provided by the government such as marketing, housing, and technology requirement.
“But they will have to stay committed and permanently look after the apple orchard,” said PM Tshering Tobgay.
In the 13th FYP, the places that are similar to Wobthang that belong to the government will be turned into cooperative farms like in yangmari, pemthang, samdrupcholing, sipse etc.
“If the land doesn’t belong to the government and belongs to the private sector, the land will be taken and rented, and it will be turned into cooperative farms as well,” PM said.
For the old aged people, there are opportunities for them to cooperate with the youth or opportunities will be given where they can work on their own just like the youth, but the size of the cooperative farms will be smaller.
