Bhutan

Because of Bhutan's relative lack of capacity to effect significant change across many agricultural sectors at once, the 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 were initiated on the management of fruit flies and on footrot management in ruminants. A major initiative on improvement of citrus production (Bhutan's largest horticultural export industry) and pest and disease management is being implemented, and a smaller study on water and land management was carried out in 2008.