Episode II: The Bhutan chapter

Download flyer

Organizers: International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Webinar 2: The Bhutan chapter

The second webinar of this Resilient Mountain Solutions (RMS) webinar series focuses on Bhutan. The participants will hear from government officials, international and local development organizations, practitioners, local research organizations, and women farmers/farmers groups about the ongoing efforts, key issues, opportunities, and constraints in facilitating women’s access to agricultural mechanization in the country.

Bhutan country context

Women in the agriculture sector

• Bhutan is a mostly mountainous country, where agriculture is practiced on steep and moderate slopes. The average landholding is 3.4 acres (≈ 1.4 hectares) per household, with almost 70% of the land owned by women, mostly because of matrilineal heritage that favour daughters in land inheritance. At present, all children inherit land from their parents mostly in equal shares, regardless of their gender.
• Increasing commoditization of land has given economic advantage to women with land ownership but this is mostly in areas with good market access. Land ownership in remote parts of Bhutan may do little to enhance the position of women.
• Subsistence agriculture dominate the sector employing more than half the labour force, with almost 9% of the women engaged in agriculture compared to men.
• Women have lower access to and control of productive resources such as agricultural machinery as well as training and extension services when compared to men. However, both men and women have equal access to and control of credits, labour, health and education services

Migration and remittances

• As per the Population and Housing Census of Bhutan, 2017, 48.7% of the total population had migrated between Gewog and a town at some point of time or since their birth.  Of the total migrants, 51% are male and 49% are female. Men migrate mostly for Employment (18.7%), family move (13.1%), or education (8.9%), whereas, women migrate due to family move (23.0%), education (7.6%) and marriage (7.5%) (2017 Population and Housing Census of Bhutan, National Report).
• Almost 65.6% of rural households have at least one member who has migrated to an urban centre. This has led to labour shortages in the rural areas, impacting women who are less likely to migrate for employment. This also translates to a high work burden as the women are also responsible for household and community activities.

Agenda

7 May 2021| 14:30-16:45 (Bhutan Standard Time, UTC+06:00) Moderator: Suman Bisht, ICIMOD