Punakha: Druk Organic Farm, College of Natural Resources, and SRI Trials

December 21, 2013

Punakha: Druk Organic Farm, College of Natural Resources, and SRI Trials

During my trip to Punakha, I was able to interview an extension officer who has been doing a few years of trials with SRI (System of Rice Intensification). I first learned about SRI in India from a Dehradun-based NGO called People's Science Institute. According to PSI, the basics of SRI include:

• SRI alters transplanting, weeding, water and nutrient management to yield an impressive harvest; uses traditional organic techniques and requires less external inputs (less seed and water and manure is cheaper than urea), so decreased input costs
• The most important technique is the preparation of a nursery where paddy saplings are grown, which are then transplanted to a field free of any weeds (planted around 8 inches apart)
• Paddy – staggered nurseries (repeated establishment of nurseries with a gap of 7 days) were encouraged instead of relying on a one-time nursery 
• Focuses on root rather than plant - ensuring healthy roots ensures healthier and more productive plants
• Another crucial factor is seed sowing time, transplanting age of paddy seedlings (e.g. can’t be too old)
• Fewer seedlings are planting per unit area, reducing competition for nutrients and instead of keeping the fields flooded, SRI drains water out after 3-4 days.  This increases the supply of air (e.g. nitrogen) to the roots.  
• SRI recommends use of organic fertilizers (also applicable to wheat, maize, finger millet (mandwa) and kidney bean (rajma))
• Systematic sowing of seeds at fixed planting (compared to conventional broadcasting method) saved 60-70% of seeds and reduced plant competition
• Digging and sowing is reduced, so it saves time and labor
• Yield increases: “In SRI, paddy plant is six feet long and has around 600 grains.  Conventional paddy is 3.5 feet long and has about 350 grains”
• PSI has developed prototype single and double row seed drills and an SWI weeder, which have a mixed response among farmers
• Scaling up/spreading of System of Wheat Intensification (SWI) in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradessh was done through network of local voluntary organizations.  It trained their personnel and other progressive farmers as Master Trainers and experienced local farmers as village level resource persons
• Farmer feedback: 
• Most adhere to just line sowing; farmers prefer sowing of two seeds per hill instead of one; farmers have realized that SWI requires time bound operations such as sowing, weeding, water management etc. for better results.  All of these are labor-intensive operations, especially without a seed drill.  In spite of higher labor inputs in sowing and weeding, farmers have expressed immense satisfaction without higher SWI grain and straw yields
• Cost-effective method of enhancing grain yield and straw volumes in rice (wheat and other crops)
• The much higher SRI crop stalk volume provides more fodder for cattle, leading to increased milk production and increased FYM for fertilizing fields
• SRI/SWI increased crop production while enhancing intrinsic productivity of land with minimum use of external inputs.  Healthy roots and more productive plants were ensured.  
• SWI is basically the same (wheat) except it changes sowing geometry, weed management and stresses organic manuring
• “SWI wheat produced more effective tillers per plant, each plant was taller and had longer panicles with more and heavier grains yielding about 5.0 T/ha, showing an average increase of about 80% in grain yield of SWI wheat over conventional wheat crop”
• Trials are being carried out of comparing SWI performance under intercropping with different pulses like gram and lentil to maintain nutrient status of soil
• Benefits of System of Crop Intensification (SRI/SWI):
• Less seed requirement
• Saving in water
• Early maturity
• Decreased chemical application
• Improved soil quality and health
• Higher grain and straw yield
• Reduced women’s workload
• Concerns: 
• SRI technique needs to be extended to other crops
• Thorough cleaning of weeds from the field is an arduous but necessary process
• Farmers find operating the weeder very cumbersome and would like it to be made mechanical.  This would increase the cost of the machine but would ease the work of the farmer; Design modification of the seed drill to ensure fixed spacing of seeds while sowing
• Farmers accessibility to quality weeders
• Capacity building of farmers in the adoption of SWI
• Availability of water under rain fed conditions, especially during weeding operations, transplanting, and after milking stage

So in general, it sounds like SRI/SWI/SCI is ideal. But experiences in the field in Bhutan demonstrate the ground realities:

Kesang, National Organic Program Coodinator: “It has been tried in many districts on a trial basis.  But until now, the results are still mixed and the reception is not clear.  People have experienced a lot of difficulties with implementing the technology.  Yield increases were noted but many extension agents cited difficulties with weed and water management.  Lack of appropriate tools and equipment in weeding and planting.  And young seedlings in our environment where the climate is quite cool, in two weeks the seedlings are still very small and it is difficult.  It is appropriate technology – how do you plant it efficiently and fast?  Seedlings by 12 days in warm areas like Thailand or India are larger.  Adoption of technology has not been very efficient.  For SRI to succeed in Bhutan, we need to improve and localize the technology.  We need a full package or modification of technology.  We could still reduce water requirement and increase yield.  You train extension agent but is also depends on how they monitor and deliver each season.  There is a weakness of technological demonstrations not being successful since SRI hasn’t taken off at farmer level.  We are having difficulties in showcasing the technology itself.”    

Dr. Tinlay (National Plant Protection Center): “With SRI, we found 2-3 major problems.  Have to sow very young rice (7-8 days) and they are either killed by water or sun (not physically strong).  Second, this alternative wetting and drying encourages weed growth.  This requires herbicides and manual weeding.  Third is that SRI requires labor and farmers don’t have this.  We have tried two years in Punakha valley.”

According to my interview with an Agriculture Extension Officer in Punakha dzongkhag,  they conducted three years of SRI trials from 2009-2012.   It began with 4 acres (6 households) and then in 2010, decreased to one household with 0.25 acres and stayed the same in 2011.  The farmers were provided with hybrid paddy seed (IR64), trained in germination, pre-soaking, and transplanting 21 day-old seedlings from the nursery, and in the second year, transplanting 14 day old seedlings.  Farmer feedback was mixed: they were happy with the decreased seed amount (i.e. only 2 kgs of seed per acre as compared to traditional paddy cultivation, which uses more than 40-50 kgs), but were initially skeptical about the age of and spacing between seedlings: traditionally, farmers use more than 2 month old seedlings planted very close together (5-15 cm), but in SRI, the farmer plants young seedlings (2-3 weeks old) relatively far apart (~20 cm) and only one at a time instead of 2-3 seedlings together.  The farmers had to be convinced that the gap needs to be maintained, but after harvesting, they were satisfied with the high yields.  Unsurprisingly, intensive and expensive labor in the form of transplanting was the major problem, as well as frequent re-irrigation (traditional = 1 time irrigation; SRI = 3-4 times).  In terms of nutrient management, farmers are fond of using synthetics such as suphala and urea, as well as the traditional FYM.  Currently, the extension services are not advising them against synthetic fertilizers since “farmers know the difference of yield with using chemical fertilizers.”  Pest and disease don’t seem to be much of a problem but weeds abound.  Farmers are mainly hand weeding but were recently given a hand and rotary weeder.  In conclusion, in terms of a yield comparison, SRI outperformed in grain yield, plant height, number of grains per panicle, tillers per hill, straw yield, milling recovery, and length of panicle.  Yet the problems are labor: more than 30 people are required for transplanting 1 acre) and to a lesser extent, cultural barriers as farmers are not accustomed to the varied practices.  Moreover, SRI is difficult to carry it out without mechanization, so there are no concrete plans to continue the trials in the future.  However, if the Agriculture Machinery Center (AMC) can provide a transplanter, weeder, seed drill etc. and the government can provide adequate irrigation water (which is often a problem due to rainfed agriculture), then perhaps SRI will be promoted since it does lead to increased yields and less seed usage.

Punakha Dzong

Doors of Bhutan

I also had an interview with a Professor at the College of Natural Resources who teaches courses in agriculture.  He is currently getting his PhD and doing his dissertation work on comparing organic and conventional paddy, though preliminary results show little difference between the two.  His study involves farmers who are using their own management practices without expertise intervention (though some were trained by NOP).  Personally, he aspires for a 100% organic Bhutan, though he acknowledged that this requires hard work and good planning/management, as opposed to defaulting to integrated management with chemicals.  I learned of some tension between NOP and BAFRA (regulatory body) in terms of certification: NOP is considering a label for farmers who are selling produce locally since consumers domestically should have assurance that it is organic.  The main issue, however, seems to be that BAFRA wants to strictly regulate the domestic market whereas NOP wants to promote (more leniency through PGS) without external involvement (e.g. BOCS – Bhutan Organic Certification System – per BAFRA versus an “assurance system” as per NOP).  Unfortunately, the regulatory presence of BAFRA might discourage farmers from taking on organic due to the increased bureaucracy.  The professor noted, “If you are really committed and want to go organic, we should ban all chemicals.  Not many of our farmers are using chemicals and they are limited types (e.g. urea, borax, suphala etc.) in terms of commercial crops (potato, citrus, apple, paddy); second thing is that we have been importing lots of vegetables and food from outside, so we will depend on imports for next few years, but the natural resilience of the environment will be established.”  An NOP officer chimed in, “If Bhutan joins WTO, the agriculture sector will suffer because imports of food from India will grow even more and local farmers will struggle.” 

In terms of management practices, according to the CNR Agriculture professor, we need to make serious efforts to recycle weeds and crop waste, which currently is not happening much on the farmer level.  Also biofertilizers, composting (good plant protector because of nutrients), FYM through collecting forest waste, plowing of weeds back into the soil, and mulching (prevents against soil born diseases) are all important and most are recognized by the farmer, but the problem is that they feel that there are more important things to do (e.g. tend to livestock).  However, if extension agents in each geog (block) could collect stories of best practices and then spread these to farmers, as well as facilitate field visits, then this would promote horizontal knowledge exchange.  Another challenge is that nutrient gradients may exist even on a small plot and this heterogeneity challenges farmers (which is also where soil testing comes in).  Thus applying a blanket application of one fertilizer or synthetic chemical, may not do the trick and instead, vermicompost might be better (but you can’t have vermicompost in cold places).

In terms of scale, he told me that “the way we have been farming is not very intensive.  We have been giving it time to rest [especially because of] lack of irrigation water.  Wildlife is a blessing because soil does not get exhausted, so there is lots of fallow land in each district but this is not quantified (also because of land shortages).  We stopped the double harvesting of paddy because of lack of water and labor shortages,” which he thought was good.  In the future, however, he has a big fear of monocropping, especially as many acres are being converted only to potato because “Farmers want to upscale whatever is bringing them the most profit.  Checks and balances are in the limited land.  Unless we pool land or get into contract farming, this will limit monocrops.  If you really want to improve agriculture, contract farming will help with upscaling and economics of scale and address marketing problem.  If we can really strengthen the marketing and let farmers be on their own.  We need to facilitate marketing.  Production and supply will happen on its own if we focus on developing demand.  If you bring farmers together, it is questionable as to how income would be shared, but if you break them up, then produce would be very small quantity.  A well managed cooperative could be the biggest asset for Bhutanese farmers.  The major problem is marketing.  Instead of every farmer coming to sell.  For livestock, we have quite a lot of marketing.  We should also focus on comparative advantage.  Bumtang is good at potato and instead of introducing new crops, which would increase production costs and new pests and diseases; rather, we should specialized in a specialty crop.  This would increase production efficiency, but the problem of this is again monocropping.  We also need to have some kind of forum with critics and supporters in the same room for empirical evidence and discussion.  There are lots of skeptics within the ministry because of lack of understanding of science of organic agriculture.  They are not focused on long-term benefits or from the sustainability focus.  We need to stress the long-term benefits without using “sustainability” [which turns people off].  Moreover, finance support is not systematic in terms of support given to farmers.  We need to truly support the market sector – this will incentivize farmers to grow and produce.”

And lastly regarding mechanization, the Professor commented: “Our agriculture will be much worse if we go towards full mechanization.  We should document all agricultural practices now before they’re gone, compare in 15 years and then decide best practices.  We need common sense and to follow ecological balance, which would take care of most of the problems and may replace the need for mechanization, which is also difficult on our land and is damaging to water resources.  If mechanization is easy, farmers will go for intensive farming.  It is good and easy but it will promote intensification and this might be harmful for the environment.” 

Paddy terraces are just so lovely

College of Natural Resources Experimental Farm Plots

After my interviews with CNR, I found myself sharing a bedroom with a sixty-year-old retired civil servant named Tshering who is managing Druk Organic Farm, a 5 acre mixed vegetable farm with an additional 15 acres of paddy (800 kg/hectare yield).  There is also a soybean cheese factory is being built as a development project by Japan.  The farm is also the collection site for the Druk Organic Farmers Cooperative, which consists of 30 small farmers who are all into organic vegetable production.  Every Thursday, they harvest and bring their vegetables to the collection center, though it is usually only 4-5 farmers each week.  Then the vegetables are brought to either the Thimphu or Paro markets.  Regarding the relationship between the farmers’ cooperative and Druk Organic Farm, I discovered that the farm controls the cooperative by technically guiding the farmers (e.g. when to sow, how to maintain soil fertility etc.).  They conduct a monthly meeting for farmers to discuss problems.  As most cooperatives, this one has a chairman, secretary, and accountant.  They collect 100 Nu (~$1.67) per month per farmer for an emergency welfare fund, then farmers can take out loans for agricultural development at 10-11% interest rates for 3-5 years.  The farmers market their produce together and at the end of the month, there is a coop meeting, during which the farmers receive payment from their individual sales.  The government has provided them with a seed drill, plastic green house, and weeder on an individual and subsidized basis, while they still purchase seed and chemicals.  Moreover, farmers are doing training with NOP and going on study tours, learning about such topics as how to grow organic and how to control pest and disease through biopesticides, crop management, and vermicompost.

Tshering is a very funny guy who seems to be permanently cracked out on lack of sleep and lack of food ("too busy to eat").  As farm manager, he specializes in production but is also responsible for marketing due to a staff shortage.  With more than 40 years of experience in the agriculture sector, he’s seen Bhutanese farming evolve and was at the forefront of its development.  Unfortunately, the language barrier made our interview less fruitful than I would have hoped.  But I did glean some interesting information.  From 1971-1984, he worked as an extension agent in the Ministry of Agriculture and from 1984-2006 in national seed production.  Before the 1970s, it seems that there wasn’t much agricultural development work or related programs, including extension services.  So Tshering claims to have started an agriculture development program in 1971.  During his early work, he supplied seedlings, fruit plants, synthetic fertilizer (urea etc.), and plant production chemicals.  He described how “at this time, it was only traditional farming.  There was no new technology applied during this period.”  Moreover, early on, Bhutan’s government used to provide synthetics free of cost as a demonstration and guided farmers in using fertilizer and pesticides.  Tshering explained how farmers liked the fertilizer and pesticide: “it was the first time of applying and they were happy because of high yielding new technology.”  Then we got into discussion on seeds since he worked in seed production for more than 20 years, and more specifically into hybrid seed production in cereals, vegetables, oils, and pulses.  He explained, “Before this, we bought parent seeds (male and female) from India and made hybrids in Bhutan.  Many farmers liked them but could not afford parent seed because it was costly and they had to buy from India.  After a few years, we stopped buying parent seed from India and to replace it, the government used to supply high yielding variety of maize (suwan 1 – OPV).  It was introduced in 1992 in Bhutan and still being used, giving 1200-1300 kg per acre.  Now farmers are using hybrid broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage.”  When I asked about seed saving activities, he said that hybrids are expensive: a 10 g packet = 70 Nu or $1.17 for hybrid; 10 g packet = 30 Nu or $0.50 for OPV and “farmers look for low price not for yield.”  I don’t know if I agree with him entirely, especially because many farmers I talked to definitely prefer hybrids because of their increased yields, but at this point, they are receiving them at a subsidized rate from the government.

Almost four years ago, Tshering retired from his work in government seed production and earlier as an extension officer.  Now he’s been managing the farm after only agreeing to do six months, and almost four years later, he’s more occupied than ever and desperately wants to go back into retirement and meditation.  He was commenting on how he keeps trying to leave but the owner insists on keeping him on.  Tshering kept me laughing almost the entire time, just making funny comments with accompanying facial expressions.  I discovered that the farm is very short on labor and if I had come sooner, I would have been able to volunteer/apprentice/intern on the farm for a week or more.  But alas, I was only able to stay one day and Tshering had to do several hours of banking work.  So I accompanied his laborers (two young women, each with babies strapped to their backs on those cloth pouches and later two young men) and basically followed them around the farm like a puppy.  Unfortunately, the women spoke hardly any English, so I had to just watch and copy their movements, never quite sure if I was harvesting the vegetable in the right stage of growth or putting enough onions in the bundle.  Despite the frustrating language barrier, I was still able to get some experience harvesting, sorting, bundling, and packing vegetables such as lettuce, swiss chard, cauliflower, onion, and pak choy, as the next day, we would head back to Thimphu with a truck full of vegetables to sell at the Farmers Market.  I found the leafy vegetables quite difficult to work with because they are so fragile.  In contrast, I enjoyed hacking the cauliflower with a sharp knife and appreciated the hardiness of the onion while we peeled back the outer layers and ripped out the roots.

Later that evening, Tshering and I had dinner at a local restaurant then retired back to the house, which is an incredibly beautiful and old Bhutanese house perched on a hillside overlooking a panorama of rice paddy terraces and surrounding hills.  Although it is gorgeous on the outside, the inside was another story.  It was really dirty and not well maintained at all.  In fact, I am pretty sure I acquired bed bugs or fleas in his house, as I woke up this morning with a bunch of nasty mosquito-like bites all over my body that were not there before.  In any case, the owner of the house and the farm is a wealthy man and the former National Speaker.  As “Druk Organic Farm” is his own personal commercial endeavor, he invests quite a lot of money each month (about 100,000 Nu or $1,667 USD) to pay for expenses such as labor, transportation, and fuel and only gets about 30,000 Nu back $500.  The Senior Researcher Officer at NOP who is helping coordinate my stay in Bhutan said that the farm is not financially or agriculturally viable right now namely due scale – they are trying to produce commercially for a farm that really should only be a family farm.  Furthermore, according to the agriculture research program director, they are currently working on increasing the financial and production sustainability of the farm, so they have hired a consultant.  There is a need to increase interventions on the farm because right now, nutrient management is minimal and there is the need to build up the soil fertility and structure.  There are also attempts to bring in improved livestock for increased milk production and manure.  Even though the farm is 4-5 years old, the management is changing constantly, which is hampering the farm’s growth.

I was able to continue my interview with Tshering later that evening.  I found it interesting because his background really seems to be more in conventional agriculture, which showed through in his responses.  For instance, he said “Compared to inorganic, organic is very difficult because we have to prepare compost, FYM, vermicompost, and on top of that, prepare biochemicals.  In conventional, it is very easy when you apply fertilizer (only 1-2 months to complete crop cycle).  But in organic, it takes a long time for the crop cycle (3-4 months) (e.g. mustard green, cauliflower) because of source of plant nutrition (fertilizer is faster).  FYM, compost, etc. develops soil fertility and is good for the crop but it takes a long time.  When I was working with the government [in the 1970s], I used to apply NPK and urea when we noticed a poor crop.  Now I think that NPK is good for crop but bad for soil.  It makes the soil hard and the taste is not as good as organic, especially vegetables.  I was working for the government for 34 years and used to eat conventional vegetables.  Now for 3.5 years, I’m growing organic vegetables and the taste is quite different.”  When I asked about pest, disease, and weed management on the farm, he explained that they do mostly hand weeding and tried mechanical weeders but “during summer, the soil becomes very muddy due to heavy rain, which makes it difficult to use the weeder.”  He is a funny guy indeed.  He explained how two years back, he used to prepare botanicals for pest protection (ginger, garlic, onion, chili etc.) but they weren’t effective because, quote, “I didn’t do the research.  Now I don’t like to use it because I want to keep it natural.”  I discovered these nasty little caterpillars on the cauliflower while harvesting and when I asked him, he said he’s not doing anything because wants to see how much it can damage the crop.  I’m not sure if the owner knows about his little experiments…

For nutrient management, he’s using compost, FYM, and vermicompost.  He said that “labor expense is only for compost making because have to collect ingredients from forest, cow dung and urine.”  Unsurprisingly, labor is the largest expense.  They’ve use a power tiller for plowing since 2000, which is “good because it’s efficient.  We don’t use bullock because it takes a long time to prepare the field.  It is not so expensive to fuel or service but really saves labor.”  I also asked about best practices on the farm and he said, “grow pea as green manure and we can sell the pod and also soybean, mulching with straw is good for preserving moisture during the dry winter and protect against crop damage, helps keep weeds down; crop rotation with leguminous crops.”

He said that “for me, it would be difficult to achieve 100% organic.  It takes a long time to complete a crop cycle from sowing to end of the crop.  For a leafy vegetable, it is 4-5 months.  Inorganic cultivation is very easy because when we notice the crop is suffering, we can just apply nitrogen fertilizer and yield will increase.”  I think given Tshering’s background working for so many years under a paradigm that, at the time, promoted synthetics, his opinion about Bhutan going 100% organic is valid.  But he did note that “if we can build up soil fertility and get irrigation, we can really profit.  We need more FYM and compost, most important.  Problem now is that our owner doesn’t believe or trust in paying money for purchasing FYM, so there is insufficient application.  Making compost here is not enough for 10-20 acres, so we have to buy from other farmers.”

I was curious about Tshering’s opinion of how government support for farmers has changed over the years.  He commented how “government is supporting farmers more now than in the past.  Before, the government didn’t understand agriculture.  Now the government is providing free of cost, which is good.  It is quite different than before.  But sometimes farmers expect but when government staff explains they can’t provide free all the time or subsidized, then some years farmers may have to pay out of pocket.  Farmers need to have good management.”

The old house I stayed in perched on a hillside

More paddy terraces

Harvesting and peeling onions for the farmers market

Make shift packs for babies

Loading up for the Thimphu Farmers Market

After our interview, I went to sleep early around 9:30 PM, only to be jarred away at 4:30 by Tshering doing morning puja in my ear, which sounded like fast paced mumbling.  I shouldn’t have been surprised because he is very religious man and did puja for an hour the prior night before we went for dinner.  But my lack of surprise did not make it any less annoying.  And then we didn’t end up leaving for the farmers market until 7:15.  We packed the truck full of vegetable crates and I found myself squished in between Tshering and his Indian driver in the cab of a very old pickup truck.  In fact, ancient is probably a more accurate term.  It was a funny sight as I was straddling the gear shifter and the driver had to constantly manipulate it as we drove through the rocky, mountainous, and winding roads.  It should have been an easy and uneventful 1 hour and 45 minute drive, but it had been particularly cold the last few days and a dense cloud of fog engulfed the farm that morning.  As we climbed in elevation, the drizzle and fog turned to snow flurries and near Dochula Pass, a full-blown snow storm.  It made the surrounding evergreen dotted mountainsides picturesque but the roads a nightmare.  It was terrifying as we saw huge 18-wheeler trucks skidding out and all of a sudden, our own truck started slipping.  I later found out that because it’s so old, it didn’t have four wheel drive.  So our truck was paralyzed on the road as a never-ending train of buses were coming down from the pass in our direction.  It was total chaos on the road and we decided to get out and start going by foot.  Unfortunately, as I stepped out of the vehicle, I slipped immediately and fell quite hard on my tailbone.  I was rolling around on the icy ground, crying out in pain as Tshering frantically tried to help me up and get me out of harm’s way, as cars continued to try to pass.  So I guess I’ll be adding this bruised tailbone/back business to my list of unfortunate injuries in Bhutan, alongside my sprained ankle and the bedbugs or fleas I contracted in the old house.  We walked slowly past a stalled line of cars and immobile trucks with spinning wheels, conscious of our own slipping.  We walked about a kilometer up to Dochula Pass where at least I could take some photos of the prayer flags and army of chortens in the swirling snowfall.  We continued to walk and Tshering was still making me crack up.  For some reason, I found everything he said hilarious.  This time he was going on about how we didn’t eat a proper breakfast and if we didn’t make it the 4 km to the next restaurant, we might starve out here and die.  I think he was being quite serious, but I couldn’t stop laughing.  Maybe it was as result of delirium from lack of sleep.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to walk 3 miles through the icy and dangerous roads, trying to stay out of the way of moving cars and also avoid going over the cliff side.  We hitched a ride with a tourist mini bus that we driving by and I was able to engage in pleasant banter with a couple of women from Singapore.  As we came down from the pass and descended into Thimphu Valley, the sun was almost shining and you’d never know that the road we had come from was virtually a war zone.  We saw emergency vehicles and tow trucks whiz by us, in addition to a huge cement truck completely flipped over.  And in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but worry that my backpack (and most importantly, computer) was still in the bed of the truck with the vegetables.  Fortunately, I got my things back later that day and needless to say, we never made it to the farmers market.  So much for an uneventful ride…   

At least the first snow was beautiful...