Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag Administration and National Organic Programme (NOP) proposal to

MoAF/IFAD Commercial Agriculture and Resilient Livelihoods Enhancement Programme (CARLEP)

The Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag Administration and the National Organic Programme proposes to
MoAF/IFAD CARLEP to promote increased community resilience through climate smart agricultural
practices, increased reach of extension services by lead farmer approach and value chain Integration
in the district through collaboration with the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative (SJI), based on the
Dzongkhag Administrations and NOPs long-term, mutually beneficial, and successful partnership
with the SJI over the past four years.

The Samdrup Jongkhar Inititiative (SJI) is a project of the Lhomon Society (LMS), a civil society
organisation in Bhutan established in December 2010, designed to foster genuine Gross National
Happiness (GNH)-based development in harmony with government goals. Initiated by Dzongsar
Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche as a potential model for the country, its purpose is to raise living
standards in the South-Eastern dzongkhag of Samdrup Jongkhar and beyond by establishing food
security and self-sufficiency, protecting and enhancing the natural environment, strengthening
communities, stemming the rural-urban migration tide, and fostering a cooperative, productive,
entrepreneurial and self-reliant spirit grounded in a rights-based approach to development,
particularly focusing on women and youth.

Based in Dewathang, Samdrup Jongkhar, the SJI is one of the first CSOs in Bhutan situated outside of
the capital directly in the field. It currently employs 10 staff, of which 7 are local, and 3 international.
Funding is received from Danida and Austrian Development Cooperation/Agency through the CSO
Fund Facility (CSOFF), GNHC-UNDP-Rural Economy Advancement Programme (REAP), GPI Atlantic of
Canada, International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, UNDP-GEF Small Grants
Programme, and the U.S. State Department Bhutan Alumni Project.

With due importance placed on continuous action-based research and best practice knowledge
creation to provide a sound foundation for all of its activities, the SJIs work falls under four
programming areas that are all strongly interlinked:

1. Sustainable Agriculture
2. Appropriate Technology
3. Zero Waste
4. Youth Engagement

A centrepiece of the Bhutan governments GNH policy is to promote sustainable agriculture.

Accordingly, SJIs objective is to deepen and extend farmer training in support of more climate
resilient sustainable farming methods and greater food self-sufficiency, and thereby to create new
development, marketing, and economic opportunities for local farmers, other agriculture related
workers, and the regions youth.

Since December 2010, the SJI has worked on fulfilling the above objectives in collaboration and
partnership with the Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag Administration and NOP, initially focusing on
action-based research and direct trainings of farmers with the help of resource persons from
Navdanya in Dehradun, India. In total 1,000 Samdrup Jongkhar farmers have been trained to date in
climate smart agriculture and sustainable land management practices, mainly in Dewathang, Orong,
and Gomdar geogs. An impact assessment of the Navdanya trainings, however, revealed that the
range and degree of implementation as well as outreach needed to be improved. In partnership and
close collaboration with the Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag Administration, the direct trainings of
farmers were consequently substituted by trainings of Agriculture Extension Officers (AEO) in 2013,
who interact regularly with the farmers in their respective geogs throughout the district. In 2014 a
lead farmer (model/expert farmers) approach, which had been piloted in Dewathang since 2010 was
subsequently scaled up to all 11 geogs in the district in partnership and collaboration with the
Dzongkhag Administration, where AEOs train lead farmers to become trainers of other farmers in
their communities, and farmer-to-farmer learning takes place through sharing of local climate smart
agriculture best practices, including value chain and marketing development. In order to continue
and further intensify the currently implemented lead farmer approach in the district, and later
upscale the model to other Eastern dzongkhags, the Dzongkhag Administration and NOP proposes to
link up with the MoAF/IFAD Commercial Agriculture and Resilient Livelihoods Enhancement
Programme (CARLEP) in collaboration with the SJI for the coming years ahead in order to ensure
adequate technical assistance/capacity development, scope and scale, as well as long-term
sustainability of the model.

The overall goal of the MoAF/IFAD CARLEP project is to sustainably increase smallholder producers
incomes and reduce poverty through commercialization of agricultural production within project
households. The project objective is to adequately develop value chains and marketing systems, as
well as to address key production constraints, for increased returns to smallholder production of
crops and livestock. The three project outcomes are: 1) Market-led agricultural production in
selected value chains has sustainably increased, 2) value chains and marketing of selected
agricultural commodities strengthened, and 3) agriculture enterprises established and strengthened
as part of value chain development. The value chains selected include i) vegetable production, and ii)
dairy farming, with rice and maize as complementary value chains.

The CARLEP Detailed Design Report (September 2014) states that: Clearly existing capacities within
Government entities go a long way for successful implementation of CARLEP. It also has to be
acknowledged that collaboration with CSO and private sector service providers will be required, as
well as the recruitment of project TA (organisation or individual) for key technical advice and
implementation support, as for value chain and capacity development and enterprise development.
Concerning partnerships with CSOs, the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative (SJI) and the Tarayana
Foundation have developed and tested community approaches for empowerment and community
capacity and resilience strengthening, especially related to sustainable and climate smart farming
practices. The SJI has also developed a lead farmer/Farmer Field School approach in collaboration
with extension agents and dzongkhag staff, which has been piloted successfully and is ready for up-
scaling. CARLEP will therefore opt to select CSOs as service providers for strengthening capacity of
individual farmers through a lead farmer approach and for farmer group formation. The CSOs will
work as an integral part of and in close collaboration with direct service delivery through geog
extension agents.

The CARLEP appraisal mission, composed of MoAF and IFAD staff, visited on invitation of the
Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag Administration the SJI field office in Dewathang, Samdrup Jongkhar,
on 2 November 2014 for a presentation of SJIs current work within the agriculture sector with a
particular focus on strategies/approaches, successes and challenges within the following three key
implementation and development capacities of the SJI:

1) Lead farmer, Farmer Field School, farmer group development;

2) Climate smart agriculture and sustainable land management practices, resilience capacity;
3) Value Chain design and strategy development, market infrastructure planning, O&M.

The mission was also introduced to lead farmers, farmer groups, and cooperatives in Dewathang
geog, as well as key persons from Dewathang community. Field visits were also carried out to one
vegetable production model farm, and one dairy model farm. Initial discussions regarding SJIs
potential role as service provider within the framework of CARLEP were moreover conducted, upon
which the following outline of work/deliverables of the collaboration between the Samdrup
Jongkhar Dzongkhag Administration, NOP, and the SJI for the coming 4-year period is based.
 Project: Increased community resilience through Climate Smart Agricultural practices, increased
reach of extension services by Lead Farmer Approach and Value Chain Integration

In partnership and collaboration with the Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag Administration, the SJI in
2013 substituted previous direct training of farmers with training of all 11 AEOs who interact
regularly with farmers at the geog level throughout the whole dzongkhag, aiming at expanding
outreach and improving range and degree of implementation of sustainable and climate resilient
agriculture practices in the district. Trainings of AEOs on sustainable and climate smart agriculture
practices are conducted by resource persons from Navdanya in Dehradun, India. In addition, a
complete network of 5-10 lead farmers in all 11 geogs was set up, where the lead farmers are
working closely together with the AEOs on implementing climate smart farming practices and
training other farmers in their respective chiogs/communities. The lead farmer approach builds on a
previously piloted model farmer/farms approach in Dewathang initiated in 2010, which was
upscaled to all 11 geogs by the beginning of 2014. The idea is that the lead farmers will complement
the AEOs, and subsequently the Livestock Extension Officers (LEO), in their work in developing
capacity among farmers on how to improve their practices and diversify their farms in order for the
farms to become more sustainable and resilient to climate change. The lead farmers also play a vital
role in assisting the AEOs and LEOs in integrating the farms into the value chain to improve income
generation and reduce poverty in the dzongkhag.

The training material currently used is constituted by 6 large posters demonstrating and explaining
the most pertinent and relevant climate smart agriculture practices in a concentrated form, suited
specifically to fit the Bhutanese context involving the following topics: i) basic livestock husbandry, ii)
soil and water conservation, iii) basic post harvest principles for cereals, iv) integrated pest
management, v) integrated nutrient management, and vi) agrobiodiversity conservation. The posters
were jointly developed during a multistakeholder writeshop with DAO, AEOs, MoAF/NOP staff, RNR
RDC Wengkhar, SJI staff and farmers, and will be translated into local language shortly. Moreover, a
Climate Smart Agriculture Resources Database is under development, mapping the best sustainable
farming practices and agrobiodiversity in the dzongkhag, upon which Best Practice Tutorials and Best
Practice Case Stories are developed to facilitate dissemination and replication.

Implementation of the new lead farmer approach is in its turn facilitated by the set up of 6 climate
smart agriculture pilot impact areas in various parts of the dzongkhag focusing on the following
sustainable and climate resilient technologies: i) soil conservation (Serthi geog), ii) SRI rice growing
(Phuntshothang, Pemathang, and Langchenphu geogs), iii) agroforestry (fruit trees) (Gomdar geog),
iv) cash crop (asparagus) (Orong geog), v) vegetable growing (Dewathang geog), and vi) solar drying
(vegetables/fruit) (Lauri geog). In total, the pilot impact areas are implemented in 8 out of the 11
geogs in Samdrup Jongkhar, and serve as sites for learning and upscaling of climate smart agriculture
best practices while at the same time promoting economic diversification and income generation
within the sector. The sites are implemented by lead farmers and farmer groups, and are carefully
monitored by the SJI team and documented in the form of case studies. Plans for the coming 2-year
period involve intensifying the already existing climate smart pilots in the 8 geogs through uptake of
the technologies by more farmer groups/beneficiaries in each of the concerned geogs. In addition,
climate smart agriculture pilot impact areas will be upscaled and implemented in the remaining 3
geogs (Wangphu, Martshala, and Samrang geogs).

So far, AEOs have selected and trained lead farmers in each geog, and involvement and training of
lead farmers in the climate smart technologies and implementation of the pilot impact areas have
been conducted where applicable. Subsequently, the lead farmers have started conducting trainings
with other farmers in their respective communities in order to ensure the larger scale outreach and
implementation rates that SJI is aiming for (training of half of Samdrup Jongkhar farmers in
sustainable farming methods). The lead farmer trainings are carried out in a group based manner
according to a two-pronged approach: 1) farmer group exchanges within geogs (intra-gewog
exchanges), and 2) exchanges between farmer groups from different geogs (cross-geog exchanges).
During the exchanges lead farmers climate smart agriculture best practices are shared through
farmer-to-farmer learning, where lead farmers model farms as well as the pilot impact areas (where
applicable) are used as practical demonstration sites. The technologies shared are depending on the
context of each geog, where each lead farmer and pilot impact area will have something new to add,
leading to a large variety of thoroughly diversified and resilient farms. Depending on the need of
each geog, Wengkhar RNR RDC will provide technical assistance to further improve certain practices
in the field. The same approach is used for formation of farmer groups, where newly formed groups
are exposed to exchanges with already established groups within their respective geogs as well as
through cross exchanges to other geogs. Moreover, on a bi-annual basis, Farmer Field Festivals are
conducted in each geog, functioning as larger scale demonstration and learning platforms for climate
smart produce and practices. So far, the farmers have expressed appreciation of the lead farmer
approach and farmer-to-farmer sharing compared to top-down trainings, as practices taught are
applicable to their own context and communicated through practical demonstrations by lead
farmers in their own communities, also invoking a sense of competition among farmers to make
their own farming practices and farms more climate smart, resilient, and productive.

The lead farmers moreover play a key role in promoting value addition and facilitating market
linkages through SJIs solar drier project in Lauri geog, where vegetables and fruits are dried in 25
locally fabricated solar driers and packaged for sales. Lead farmers will also facilitate value chain and
market infrastructure planning through linking farmers with institutions and enterprises for selected
value chains (vegetables, dairy, rice, maize) in each geog.

In October 2014 a mid-term review with AEOs and Assistant District Agriculture Officer (ADAO) was
conducted, taking stock of the joint Dzongkhag Administration-SJI implemented sustainable
agriculture programme, and in February 2015 a year end evaluation workshop will take place in
order to review the lead farmer approach for further systematization and intensification within the
district. The plan is to continue intensifying/vertically upscaling the current lead farmer approach in
Samdrup Jongkhar dzongkhag for the coming 2 years, while comprehensively documenting and
systematizing the process based on lessons learned and best practices. This is done through
technical assistance and careful monitoring and evaluation by the SJI agriculture team of the
activities carried out by lead farmers and AEOs, where each geog is followed-up and monitored at
chiog level by SJI staff on a quarterly basis. To improve technical assistance and monitoring outreach
in the remote Eastern geogs, the SJI has also decided to set up an SJI Extension Office in
Jomotshangka dungkhag (Lauri, Serthi, Langchenphu geogs). In addition, planning, review, and
evaluation workshops with AEOs and lead farmers are carried out on a yearly basis. As part of the
documentation and systematization process, a Field Manual formalizing the lead farmer approach
including selection criteria, work plan, monitoring mechanism, etc. is currently being piloted in
Dewathang geog and is planned to be replicated in other geogs during the intensification phase.
Based on lessons learned and best practices identified during the coming 2-year period, the lead
farmer approach will be horizontally upscaled to other adjacent Eastern dzongkhags during year 3-4
of the CARLEP project cycle. Implementation arrangements for the upscaling phase to other
dzongkhags will be determined in connection to the CARLEP mid-term review.

Below the planned activities and outputs for the coming intensification phase of the lead farmer
approach in Samdrup Jongkhar dzongkhag are listed. Budget estimates for the activities are attached
in a separate Excel-sheet, amounting to a total of 475,567 USD for a 4-year period (around 100,000
USD per year), of which approximately 50 percent of the amount is co-funded. Budget estimates for
year 2-4 have been extrapolated based on year 1 activities. A detailed workplan will be developed
during the inception phase of the project.

Samdrup Jongkhar Dasho Dzongdag and the Dzongkhag Administration together with the NOP are
endorsing SJIs role as implementing partner/service provider in the MoAF/IFAD CARLEP project
based on SJIs previous strong partnership and collaboration with the Dzongkhag Administration and
NOP, in particular in training AEOs and other dzongkhag staff in 2013, and subsequent
implementation of the lead farmer approach in each of the 11 geogs in the district in 2014. Since the
AEOs are key implementers of the lead farmer approach and in training lead farmers in climate
smart agriculture practices, co-funding is indirectly provided by the Dzongkhag Administration
through generously making AEOs available in kind to the SJI for implementing the lead farmer
approach in the whole district.

Co-funding is also provided by the National Organic Programme through deputation of a technical
expert to the SJI (28,000 USD), tentatively starting from January 2015, who would oversee the
implementation of the CARLEP project.1 The NOP is currently also conducting discussions with the SJI
for possible cost sharing of additional activities in the proposal.

In addition, meetings and discussions are ongoing with all the Gups in Samdrup Jongkhar dzongkhag
regarding earmarking parts of the Geog Development Grants (GDG) for the CARLEP project. In
principle the Gups have agreed to allocate 50,000 Nu of the 2 million Nu yearly GDG grants for each
geog to implement CARLEP activities (50,000 x 11 = 550,000 Nu x 4 years= 2,200,000 Nu = 36,667
USD).2 The GDG is a new concept started by the new government, and the commitment of the geog
leaders to support the MoAF/IFAD CARLEP could be the first partnership of its kind. The
collaboration would significantly strengthen ownership and sustainability of the CARLEP, since the
community/beneficiaries would themselves be co-financing the CARLEP activities.

Another possibility for co-funding is through Maitri Trust with respect to technical assistance and the
field monitoring and evaluation activities. Maitri Trust will potentially replace SJIs previous core-
fund donor International Development Research Centre (IDRC), starting from April 2015. A proposal
for core-funds and additional programme funds will be submitted by the SJI to Maitri Trust by the
end of January 2015, including the technical assistance and field monitoring and evaluation activities

1
Funding of technical expert from NOP for year 3-4 depending on further approval based on results delivered.
2
GDG funding for year 3-4 depending on further approval based on results delivered.
in the CARLEP proposal (amounting to in total 159,067 USD). Provided that funding is granted, it
would mean that SJI will be able to fund its own operational costs for the project.
 Activities and Outputs (Year 1-4)

Activity 1: Recruitment of additional lead farmers including women and youth lead farmers in each
geog.

Outputs: 100 new lead farmers recruited over 4 years. 30 percent women representation of
lead farmers in each geog. 20 percent youth representation among lead farmers in each
geog.

Activity 2: Training of AEOs, LEOs, and local government representatives in sustainable and climate
smart agriculture practices.

Outputs: 2 trainings of AEOs, LEOs, local government representatives, and select lead
farmers and SJI staff conducted by resource persons from Navdanya on site.

Activity 3: AEO and LEO trainings of lead farmers.

Outputs: 1 season, 1 off-season training conducted by AEOs and LEOs each year.

Activity 4: Diversification and resilience of lead farmers model farms and farmer groups.

Outputs: Set up of composting (commercial) sheds, land management/terracing, agro-

forestry plantations, biogas facilities, cattle urine harvesting systems (linkage to providers of
cattle urine for those who do not have cows), seed saving/seed banks, etc.

Activity 5: Facilitation of farmer group formation and agricultural inputs to climate smart agriculture
pilot impact areas.

Outputs: 12 vegetable farmer groups formed (vegetables, maize, composting) per year. 4
dairy farmer groups formed per year. Intensification and upscaling of pilot impact areas by
farmer groups.

Activity 6: Farmer-to-farmer trainings.

Outputs: 3 intra-geog exchanges per year per geog. 1 cross-geog exchange per year for each
geog.

Activity 7: Farmer Field Festivals.

Outputs: 2 Farmer Field Festivals held in each geog (demonstrations of climate smart
produce and practices).

Activity 8: Development of climate smart agriculture training material and Farmer Field Manual.

Outputs: 1 Climate Smart Agriculture Resources Database developed. Development of Best

Practice Tutorials, Best Practice Case Stories. Farmer Field Manual developed and utilized by AEOs in
each gewog.
Activity 9: Documentation of process and systematization of lead farmer approach based on lessons
learned and best practices. Development of knowledge products.

Outputs: 1 report documenting the lead farmer approach process. 1 TV/Radio documentary
in collaboration with the Dzongkhag Administration on Samdrup Jongkhar Climate Smart
Agriculture Best Practices.

Activity 10: Promotion of value addition and preservation through drying technologies, and
identification of market channels for solar dried produce.

Outputs: Packaging materials provided for packaging of produce. Market linkage established
through AEOs, lead farmers, and the SJI.

Activity 11a: Outreach and technical assistance from the SJI Office in Dewathang.

Outputs: Recruitment of 1 technical expert. Recruitment of 2 farmer liaisons. Recruitment of

2 interns.

Activity 11b: Establishment of SJI Extension Office for outreach and technical assistance in remote
Eastern geogs.

Outputs: Set up of Extension Office facility. Recruitment of 1 farmer liaison. Recruitment of 1

intern.

Activity 12: Monitoring and evaluation of implementation of lead farmer approach in the field.

Outputs: Monitoring and evaluation of each geog conducted by the SJI agriculture team on a
quarterly basis (AEO/LEO trainings, farmer-to-farmer trainings/exchanges, group formations,
pilot impact areas, Farmer Field Festivals, etc.)

Activity 13: Planning, review, and evaluation workshops with AEOs, LEOs, local government, and lead
farmers.

Outputs: 1 Planning, review, and evaluation workshop conducted per year.