The
Rural Development Training Project
(last updated November 2006)
Phase I: November 2003 to October
2007
Budget:
CFH 2,000,000 for Phase I
Partner:
RDTC team, Ministry of Agriculture, Thimphu
Contact:
Chhimi Dorji PM Tel: +975-2-376 025 Fax: +975-2-376 105,
Olivia Hartmann-Faessler Advisor,
Christian Hartmann-Faessler Advisor,
Werner Christen Construction Advisor
Background/Introduction
Achievements
Activities
On-going activities
Future Outlook
Key Project Documents
Background/Introduction
The
high coverage with basic education facilities all over Bhutan has led to
high enrolment in the schools and subsequently to high numbers of youth
requiring additional training and/or employment opportunities. With a
comparatively small civil service and a private sector yet to develop,
such employment opportunities for the school leavers are presently
limited. Most available jobs in the modern sector require specialised
knowledge and skills other than those possessed by many school leavers.
On the other hand, agriculture workforce consists of 75% of the
Bhutanese population and is declining by 1.3% annually as a result of
internal migration to urban centres. This rural-urban migration of
(mainly young) people is a serious threat to the 9th
Five-Year Plan Objective to maintain national food security. RDT’s aim
is therefore to work towards providing and enabling environment for
rural employment with the ultimate goal of enhancing rural livelihood
through an increased social and economic security.
The
-
Enhance skills and knowledge on agriculture production & rural
development
-
Contribute towards creation of employment & income opportunities
-
Support market oriented farming through appropriate production
methodologies
-
Support institutional strengthening of producers' group (e.g.
cooperatives/associations).
through
a decentralized, practical and theoretical, multi-disciplinary training
at various levels as per the need of the existing target groups (being
young school leavers, farmers and community leaders). A coordination
centre for all these activities is being constructed
in Zhemgang town.
This
training programme will consist of
-
an
agricultural apprenticeship, complemented with basic theoretical and
practical training (mainly for early school leavers)
-
farm
Business training for farmers, providing in-depth practical and
theoretical knowledge about subjects with economic potential
-
training in rural development support services such as
community/producers groups/associations etc. community leaders (how
to form a group, accounting, moderating meetings etc.).
The
project funds of a total of Nu. 87 million (around 1.95 mio US$) will be
provided by RGoB (27%) and Helvetas/SDC (73%). The major bulk of the
cost will be going for
the construction component equipment and vehicles (52 mio), followed by
cost for establishment and running of the training programme (incl.
consultancies and training of instructors) (24 mio). The remaining 11
mio will cover the operating expenses.
Achievements:
On-going activities:
-
Construction
-
CLT trainings
-
FBT trainings
-
APT acceptance survey
-
Farm development
-
Site development
-
Institutional linkages (RC-Bajo and Wengkhar,
Mongar high School)
-
Curriculum development
Future Outlook:
-
To meet the
increasing demand for trainings with the decentralization of
training (sites) – by developing curricula for ToT (training of
trainers) and by building up a pool of certified trainers, using
strict criteria for certification.
-
Conduct skills-based
close-by (easy to reach) trainings in specific crop and animal
production technologies for sustainable and improved production
-
Conduct farm
management and record keeping trainings for successful planning and
increased market-orientation by taking best economic choices for
the enterprises
-
Use available
information and data bases to inform the farmers about the recent
trends and future perspectives
-
Network the farmers
and farmers groups from different geographical regions and farming
enterprises to share and learn from each others experiences
-
Facilitate the
collaboration of farmers to work together as groups leading to
larger groups to benefit from the scale of economy and strength of
groups - to make up for the smallness in area and sphere of
influence.
-
Create opportunities
for youth to discover the potential of agriculture as source of
livelihood and systematic presence in media with positive examples
of agriculture as source of income and livelihood.
Key Project Documents:
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