A five-day training initiated by ARDC Wengkhar, with fund support from CARLEP ended on 5^th March, 2019. The training focused on hands-on practice in staggered vegetable production, developing drip irrigation system and use of Geographic Information  System (GIS) were attended by twenty eight Gewog Extension Officers  from six eastern Dzongkhags.

Although the cultivation of the various vegetables in diverse agro-ecological areas of Bhutan throughout the season is feasible, the farmers are limited to the ideas of growing only the on-season vegetables. To encourage the youths and farmers to grow and supply continuous vegetable productions throughout the seasons, Mr Loday Phunstsho, Deputy Chief Research Officer and Dr. Tshering Penjor, Principal Agricultural Officer at the ARDC Wengkhar facilitated the training to the GAEOs. The training focused on increasing the practice of staggered vegetable productions using methods such as drip irrigation and protected agriculture which can help produce higher yields and consistent agricultural productivity.

In addition to that, GAEOs were trained on geographic information system (GIS) application for agricultural mapping and suitability analysis of areas for the cultivation and acquiring the data correctly. It is expected that the skills gained through the training would be useful for GAEOs in better planning and implementation of the field activities.

Reported by Chhimi Lhamo, CARLEP