Some Challenges for Bhutanese Govt

Source: Dorji, P (2011) 'Rural Toursim in Bhutan', working paper, University of New England

Source: extracted from
http://bhutan2008.blogspot.com/
2007/05/wangdiphodrang-
valley.html

"Urbanisation is becoming amajor challenge in Bhutan. Bhutan has arable land of only 7.8 percent (The World Bank Group, 2011), that cannot be extended because of its steep mountain terrain. Most of the arable lands are now forgone forurbanization. As the country develops, most of the arable lands are beingconsumed by town re-allocation and real estate boom. With little scope of comparative advantage inthe secondary sector of economy against India and China, except for Hydropower, urbanization posses a serious threat to the livelihood of the rural people.

Source: NSB (2007) Poverty Analysis Report
2007, RGOB

 It also challenges the government with the goal of achieving food self-sufficiency. The food self-sufficiency of Bhutan is currently at around 60%. As more arable lands are taken away for urbanization, the gap of reaching the goal of self-sufficiency may be widened. In addition, use of modern farming machineries is almost impossible as most of the farmlands are situated on hilly areas. 

Source: NSB (2007) Poverty Analysis Report
2007, RGOB

Another challenges for Bhutan is reduction of Poverty. As per the Poverty Analysis Report, one forth of the total population is under poverty (National Statistics Bureau, 2007). Almost 98% of the total population under poverty are living in rural areas engaging in subsistence farming (National Statistics Bureau, 2007). The Government has adopted poverty reduction as the primary goal under the tenth five yearly plan (Gross National Happiness Commission, 2009). Despite the efforts from the government and the developmental partners to reduce poverty, the progress has been slow largely because of the harsh geo-physical realities (Gross National Happiness Commission, 2009). Due to such harsh realities in the rural areas, there has been increase in the rate of rural to urban migration (Oppermann, 1996)."

(c) Pema Dorji 2011. No reproduction without the Author's permission.