Bhutan banks on high-altitude hazelnuts to remake mountain farming
Farmer Pema Dema had never even heard of hazelnuts when she was first recruited to begin growing them on her land in Bhutan’s Thimphu region. “I wondered what sort of a nut it was,” the 58-year-old said with a laugh, looking out over the deep valley and terraced rice fields that unfold below her farm. Now she has more than 140 hazelnut trees on the steep slope overlooking her home, and…
Pema Dema, a 58-year-old farmer in Bhutan's Thimphu region, had never heard of hazelnuts before she started growing them on her land. She now has over 140 hazelnut trees and uses them in Bhutan's traditional salted suja tea. Mountain Hazelnuts, Bhutan's first 100% foreign direct investment project in agriculture, began in 2009 and has distributed more than 145,000 plants to 800 growers.
The project aims to help subsistence farmers develop a high-value crop by growing hazelnuts in mountainous terrain where traditional farming is difficult. However, the project has faced setbacks due to a mismatch between production and polliniser saplings, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change. Despite these challenges, many farmers like Pema and Dawa Dhendup, an 82-year-old who grows 1,400 hazelnut trees, are optimistic about the future.
The company has received US$36 million in investment and expects production to reach 10,000 tonnes by 2031, with income starting to rise as trees mature and yields increase.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
