Food for thought; Help farmers and improve national food security

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Merely two percent of Bhutan’s total landscape is arable. The Bhutanese population imports billions of worth of food products draining the country’s foreign currency reserve. The majority of Bhutanese consumers prefer rice as a staple food. The fertile paddy fields are left at the mercy of nature and more farmers are demotivated due to human-wildlife conflict. Thus, talks on achieving food self-sufficiency in the next hundred or thousand years will still be discussed.
There are European Union grants for the ministry of agriculture to ensure food security in the country. But what we need to realize is, we can’t live on grants for a longer time. Those grants should be utilized wisely to reduce the hardships our farmers are encountering. The leaders and policymakers, decision-makers should listen to what the farmers suggest so that Bhutan achieves food security.
Samtse, the rice bowl of the southern borders likewise is struggling with several issues despite being one of the most fertile lands to grow winter vegetables and cultivate paddy twice a year. The fallow paddy field turning into the forest, wild animals like boars and elephants seeking shelter, hiding behind the bushes, and causing a menace to the farmers are forcing most of them to leave their paddy fields barren.
Moreover, with the immigration department restricting the entry of cheap tea gardeners across the border, the farmers in Samtse are cultivating paddy only once a year with difficulties protecting their crops as they need to walk several miles to guard their fields. 
There should be a way to solve this issue. The farmers only want to construct a watch tower or guarding shed, not residential or rental buildings in their fields. But the contradictory policies need to be deliberated and the wild animals will have the advantage of reaping the harvest before the hardworking farmers. Leaving many demotivated, and disappointed and some even giving up farming life. In such cases, how is the country going to achieve food security?
The prime minister of the country during his visit to Paro claimed that Bhutan should take leverage of cheap and unskilled laborers across the border to carry out the basic job and encourage Bhutan’s youth to get skilling training. If it’s the case, why can’t they allow the tea garden workers in the neighboring border town to come and work during the day and leave by evening? Just as simple as that can boost the farmers sweating with the hardships of farm work.
When the government and the decision-makers understand the issues with our farmers and come up with a better solution, the dream of achieving food security will come true. But at this pace where some events and celebration is more important than the farmers on the ground zero, we can go back to sleep and wake up famished one day.