Bhutan

Because of Bhutan’s relative lack of capacity and the presence of several large donors competing for Bhutanese government and commercial resource support, the ACIAR program will remain small and very tightly focused. Earlier ACIAR research to develop Newcastle disease vaccine for village chickens was extended and adapted for the situation in Bhutan with the help of AusAID funding, and projects have been initiated on the management of fruit flies and on footrot management in ruminants. ACIAR’s strategy for Bhutan is to work closely with the Bhutanese Government, local industry and other donors to ensure that planned R&D interventions are appropriate, consistent with the most recent government 5-year plan and complementary to the work of other donor agencies. A major initiative on improvement of citrus production (Bhutan’s largest horticultural export industry) through improved planting material and ICM is currently being implemented. The Bhutan Government has identified crop irrigation management, ICM of vegetables (particularly chilli) and development of contract farming crops (e.g. walnut, grapes, asparagus, pomegranate) as priorities for future collaborative R&D.

Key areas identified as research priorities across the medium term include:

Field crop germplasm improvement and utilisation

Sustainable water and soil resource management

• Water and soil resource assessment and the development and implementation of sustainable management plans, with an emphasis on community engagement and increased community-level co-management
• Water harvesting and irrigation management technology development

Horticulture, including crop management

• Development, adaptation and adoption of integrated and sustainable management practices for horticultural crops.