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Capacity building of stakeholders involved in institutional linkage and monitoring of new farmers groups 15th March to 30th June 2014 Submitted to SNV BHUTAN Natural Resources Management Consultancy Services Chang Jalug, Thimphu 1 Table of Contents List of tables and figures (4) Executive Summary (6) Acknowledgements (8) 1.0 Concept (9) 1.1 Background (9) 1.2 Objectives of the workshop (10) 1.3 Schedule of the workshops in the six eastern Dzongkhags (11) 1.4 Programme for the Dzongkhag workshop (11) 1.5 Output from the Dzongkhag workshop (12) 1.6 Other agendas of the Dzongkhag Workshops (12) 1.7 Awarding of certificates to FGs that performed well in 2013 (15) 1.8 Media coverage (15) 2.0 Introduction (16) 2.1 Linking of institutes with available farmers groups (16) 2.2 Lessons learnt from the linking exercise (17) 2.3 Role of different agencies in institutional linkage (18) 3.0 Introduction (20) 3.1 Methodology of monitoring (20) 3.2 Discussion topics for monitoring meetings (20) 3.3 Expected outcome of the monitoring exercise (22) 3.4 Outputs from monitoring of specific FGs (23) 2 3.5 Action points that emerged from the monitoring exercise (38) 4.0 Introduction (40) 4.1 Vegetable requirements in Boarding Schools (40) 4.2 Vegetable requirements by religious institutes (45) 4.3 Vegetable requirement in Colleges under RUB and private college (52) 4.4 Vegetable requirements in Vocational Institutes (TTI & IZC) (53) 4.5 Vegetable requirement in Hospitals (54) 4.6 Vegetable requirement in Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) (55) 4.7 Vegetable requirement of Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) (56) 4.8 Vegetable requirement of Royal Body Guard (RBG) (57) 4.9 Analysis of vegetable requirements in various institutes (57) 4.10.0 Way forward (59) 5.0 References (61) 6.0 Annexures (62) 3 List of tables and figures Table 1.3.1 Schedule of Dzongkhag workshops in the east Table 1.4.1 Programme for the Dzongkhag workshops Table 1.5.1 Action plan for linking farmers groups with institutes in supplying vegetables for the 2015 academic year Table 3.4.1 List of VVCP-E Farmers Groups monitored Table 4.1.1 Weekly vegetable requirement and expenditure for Boarding Schools that have common mess Table 4.2.1 Weekly vegetable requirement and expenditure for Rabdeys & Zhung Dratshang that has common mess Table 4.2.2 Weekly vegetable requirement and expenditure for Shedras & Lobdras that has common mess Table 4.2.3 Weekly vegetable requirement and expenditure for Nunneries in Bhutan that have common mess Table 4.2.4 Weekly requirement of vegetables and expenditure for private religious institutes registered under Department of Culture Table 4.3.1 Weekly vegetable requirement in Colleges under Royal University of Bhutan and private college that has common mess Table 4.4.1 Weekly vegetable requirement and expenditure for TTI and IZC under MoLHR that have common mess Table 4.5.1 Estimated weekly vegetable requirement and expenditure for Hospitals that require vegetables for patients Table 4.6.1 Weekly requirement of vegetables and expenditure for RBP and prisons that have common mess Table 4.7.1 Weekly requirement of vegetables and expenditure by RBA that have common mess 4 Table 4.8.1 Weekly requirement of vegetables and expenditure in RBG Dechencholing Fig.4.2.1 Weekly vegetable requirement (kg) and expenditures by different types of religious institutes Fig.4.9.1 Annual requirement of vegetable (ton) and expenditures (Nu) for various institutes in the country Fig.4.9.2 Percent requirement of vegetables in various institutes 5 Executive Summary In this assignment, four different tasks were executed: conducting 1 day workshops in 6 eastern Dzongkhags; linking 2-4 institutes with farmers groups in each of the 6 Dzongkhags; monitoring 18 new/weaker farmers groups growing vegetables; and determining vegetable requirement of all institutes having common mess in the country. The work was done from March to June 2014. The objective of the Dzongkhag workshops was to build capacity of the main stakeholders in facilitating the process of linking farmers groups with institutes in supplying vegetables with the goal of linking all institutes with farmers groups from beginning of 2015. All Agriculture Extension Agents, Gups and Dzongkhag Agriculture and Education Officers participated in the workshop. The participants were appraised on the process of institutional linkage in detailed steps and made their roles and responsibilities clear. They were taken through the contractual agreement preparation and facilitation of price negotiation of vegetables. A role-play of buyers and sellers was acted out to make the process clear. The outcome of the workshop is an action plan by each geog in all the 6 eastern Dzongkhags on linking remaining institutes with farmers groups. The participants were also briefed by FCBL on physical marketing of RNR products. It was planned to link 2-4 institutes with farmers group in each of the 6 Dzongkhags. The objective of this exercise was to provide on-the job coaching and support to the direct local facilitators to execute new contracts. But this couldn’t be done for all Dzongkhags due to lack of farmers groups near institutes. Only 5 institutes were linked with farmers groups in 3 Dzongkhags. To make up for this, role-play of buyers and sellers was done; roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders was made clear; and action plan for all geogs in 6 eastern Dzongkhags was prepared in linking remaining institutes with farmers groups in the Dzongkhag workshops. Monitoring of 13 new and 5 weaker farmers vegetable groups was done. The main objective of monitoring the selected groups was to motivate the five weaker groups and create awareness as how the groups should function for the 13 new groups. With assistance from Dzongkhag and Geog Agriculture Officers, meetings were scheduled with the groups. The groups were visited 6 with representatives from SNV, RAMCO and Geog Agriculture Extension Agents. The groups were briefed on various topics pertaining to group management and also issues about production and marketing of vegetables. Interactive sessions were held to further clarify on the questions, issues and constraints that the farmers groups were facing. Realizing the market potential in institutes in the country, an exercise was carried out to identify all kinds of institutes in the country that have common mess requiring vegetables. The vegetable requirement of each institute was determined and expenditures for vegetables by each institute estimated. The findings are summarized in the box below: Institute Annual Annual % requirement of requirement expenditure veg by institutes of veg (ton) on veg (Nu) Boarding Schools 2041 40,820,000 26 Religious Institutes 556 11,120,000 7 Colleges 273 5,460,000 3 Vocational Institutes 125 2,500,000 2 Hospitals 94 1,880,000 1 RBP 209 4,180,000 3 RBA 4563 91,260,000 58 Total 7861 157,220,000 100 The institutional market requires 7861 ton of vegetables annually and the farmers groups has the opportunity to earn an income of Nu.157,220,000 annually by supplying vegetables to the institutes. RBA has the maximum requirement of vegetables at 7861 tons annually (58%) followed by Boarding schools at 2041 tons annually (26%). 7 Acknowledgements I am very grateful to SNV Bhutan for giving me the opportunity to carry out this assignment. In particular I thank Mr. Rik van Keulen and Mr. Binai Lama who had travelled all the way to attend the first workshop in Tashigang wherein his comments were very valuable for the following workshops. I thank Mr. Kencho Wangdi, the Country Representative of SNV Bhutan for his kind support. I sincerely acknowledge the strong support from Mr. Bhim Raj Gurung (Marketing Specialist) and his team from RAMCO Mongar especially Mr. Karma Tenzin and Mr. Rinchen Dorji. Mr. Bhim Raj Gurung has strongly supported this work by participating in almost all the Dzongkhag workshops and contributed significantly to the assignment. Mr. Karma Tenzin accompanied me for the whole duration of the workshops, monitoring and linking exercises. He came out with many brilliant ideas and suggestions for the assignment and also supported in logistical arrangements. I thank all the six eastern Dzongkhags DAOs and ADAOs for logistical arrangements and participation in the workshops. I am grateful to the Agriculture Extension Agents involved in monitoring of the groups in the geogs for their kind support. The participation of DEOs in the workshops is highly appreciated and I acknowledge the support from the Principals and Mess Incharges of schools and institutes involved in linking with farmers groups. I thank the participation of all the Gups of six eastern Dzongkhags in the workshops and my special thanks to the farmers groups whom I interacted during the monitoring exercises. I thank all the individuals from various institutes who provided me with information on institutional requirement of vegetables. I wish and hope that all the different institutes in the country are linked with farmers groups in supplying vegetables in the near future. 8 Chapter 1 Linking farmers groups with institutes in supplying vegetables through legal contractual agreements 1.0 Concept Farmers groups near institutes undertake to meet all vegetable requirement of the institute through drawing up legal contractual agreement where prices of vegetables are fixed in the beginning for a fixed period. The institutes serve as sustainable market for the farmers as they require vegetables throughout the year. In turn the institutes get almost organic fresh vegetables every week which is nutritious for the consumers in the institutes. 1.1 Background The aspiration of linking farmers groups to the local institutes to supply agricultural products had started in the late 1990s in the eastern region.