Bhutan's rice harvest faces mounting pressure from shrinking farms, labor shortages and climate stress

A small harvest gain masks a deeper squeeze

Bhutan harvested 41,537.28 metric tonnes of paddy in 2024, yet the country produces only 45 percent of the rice it needs. Rice supplies 53 percent of daily dietary energy, leaving a large gap filled mainly by imports from India. Behind those figures, fewer farmers are growing the crop, cultivated land is shrinking, and unreliable water supplies are making harvests harder to protect.

The latest Integrated Agriculture and Livestock Census records 41,352.28 tonnes from irrigated paddies and 185 tonnes from upland paddies. Irrigated production rose 1.94 percent from 2023, while upland production fell 23 percent. Total cereal production increased 4.92 percent over the same period, but the contraction in rice area and the farming population continues to concern food security planners.

Paddy grows in all 20 dzongkhags, or districts, across an unusually broad range of conditions: from tropical lowlands roughly 200 meters above sea level to warm temperate terraces near 2,700 meters. Punakha led production with 8,027.35 tonnes in 2024, retaining its position as Bhutan's rice bowl. Pemagatshel produced just 47 tonnes.

Farmers cultivate modern Bhutanese varieties including Bajo Maap 1 and 2, Bajo Kaap 1 and 2, Yusi Ray Maap, and Yusi Ray Kaap. Most rice is consumed by the households that grow it or sold in nearby markets. Keeping those fields productive therefore matters both to national food supplies and to the daily meals and incomes of farming families.

Fewer growers, smaller areas

The number of irrigated paddy growers fell from 23,620 in 2021 to 20,920 in 2024. The decline was sharper among upland growers, whose numbers dropped from 1,907 in 2020 to 825 in 2024. These changes show a sustained reduction in the people maintaining rice production, even when a particular year's harvest improves.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known as CIMMYT, describes a wider contraction in its account of seed system strengthening. Between 2016 and 2021, Bhutan's rice area shrank by more than half, while maize area fell even more. Urban expansion, rural migration and climate pressures were among the drivers.

The main milestones show how land, labor and production have changed across different periods:

• 1995: A rice blast epidemic devastated traditional cultivars in several zones at middle and higher elevations.
• 2016 to 2021: Rice area contracted by more than half, and maize area fell even more.
• 2020 to 2024: The number of upland paddy growers declined from 1,907 to 825.
• 2021 to 2024: Irrigated paddy growers declined from 23,620 to 20,920.
• 2024: Paddy production reached 41,537.28 tonnes, with irrigated output rising and upland output falling compared with 2023.

Rice retains the largest cultural and dietary weight among Bhutan's cereals. A smaller base of land and growers makes maintaining production more demanding, especially where households already face shortages of workers, water or money for inputs.

Labor shortages reach the terraces

Younger Bhutanese are moving to towns, many farmers are aging, and rural households have fewer people available for farm work. Rice requires substantial labor for transplanting, weeding and harvesting. Tasks once shared across extended families now fall to fewer hands, while hiring workers brings higher wage bills.

Urban growth and changing livelihoods have also reduced arable plots or divided them into smaller holdings. Scattered fields take more effort to irrigate and manage. A household may have to move workers and equipment between several plots rather than complete the same work in one continuous area.

Small machines can reduce the workload, but steep terraces and fragmented holdings restrict the use of larger equipment. Many villages also lack businesses or operators that provide machinery services. Access to a machine at the right moment matters when several households need to plant or harvest during the same short period.

Small tillers, transplanters and reapers suited to terraces are among the practical options. Organizing services that allow farmers to rent equipment during busy periods would make mechanization more accessible without requiring every household to buy its own machines.

Wildlife raids add a nightly burden

Elephants and wild boars can destroy a season's work in a single night. Conflict between people and wildlife has become more acute in several southern and eastern districts, adding another reason for households to reconsider whether they can continue growing rice.

Farmers use night watches, scare devices and fencing to protect their crops. Those defenses can be costly or exhausting to maintain. Compensation claims can also take time to resolve, leaving households to carry losses while deciding how much to invest in the next season.

Repeated raids push some families to abandon paddies or switch to crops that attract less wildlife. Community operated electric and solar fences, shared night watch shifts and quicker compensation procedures are among the proposed responses. Their purpose is practical: protect the crop while reducing the time and uncertainty that farmers must absorb.

Water determines whether planting can proceed

Reliable irrigation is a central constraint because paddies need steady water at key stages of growth. An irrigated field can withstand a short dry spell and still produce a good yield. When water is uncertain, farmers may reduce the area planted or transplant late, losing some of the crop's yield potential.

Many terraces depend on canals that carry water downhill by gravity and share limited flows among numerous plots. Leaking earthen channels, blocked intakes and storm damage to diversion structures interrupt delivery. Canals and intakes often need repairs or modernization, while climate shifts are making river flows less reliable.

Repairs before the monsoon, lining priority sections of canals and adding small storage ponds could help water reach fields during transplanting. Better delivery can also reduce conflict between farmers nearer the intake and those farther downstream. Watershed restoration, canal maintenance and more efficient use within fields need to work together.

Alternate wetting and drying offers another option where supply is tight. Instead of keeping a field continuously flooded, farmers allow the water to drain to a set depth before flooding it again. Carefully managed, this can reduce water use while maintaining yields. It requires good field leveling, maintained bunds, precise scheduling, local demonstrations and extension advice.

Small pumps and pipes can bridge dry periods where the terrain allows, although power and fuel costs limit their use. Water investment also needs to connect with storage, transport and milling: weak systems after harvest increase losses and can discourage farmers from investing in the next crop.

A changing climate brings dry spells and floods

A study covering five districts found a clear warming trend and a general decline in precipitation across long records dating to 1901. It also identified greater exposure to drought, flash floods, windstorms and hail. Its models forecast continued declines in paddy and maize production over the coming decade if those patterns persist.

The authors recommend climate smart agriculture and climate smart villages. These approaches bring together measures such as soil and water conservation and access to climate information, helping farmers adjust their decisions to changing conditions.

Research on the Punatshangchu and Wangchu river basins points to the damage that heavier rainfall could cause. The basin flood projections indicate that, by late century, annual rainfall magnitude could increase about 60 percent, extreme events by more than 32 percent, and flood inundation by 60 to 90 percent. Projected inundation depth and volume could rise by up to 60 percent.

The same modeling projects agricultural damage increasing two to six times, with the value of losses rising much more. These are projections rather than a fixed outcome. They point to the exposure of paddies concentrated on valley floors, where heavier monsoon bursts and storms outside the usual season can submerge fields, erode land and trigger landslides that block canals.

Farmers therefore face pressure from both insufficient water and sudden excesses. Maintaining irrigation means securing supplies through dry periods while also protecting intakes, channels and fields against damaging flows.

The lesson of the 1995 rice blast epidemic

Bhutan's 1995 rice blast epidemic shows how weather and disease can combine to devastate a harvest. The disease, caused by the fungus Pyricularia grisea, struck traditional cultivars in several zones at middle and higher elevations. Scientific investigations found unusually favorable weather for blast development, with losses approaching the entire crop in the worst affected fields.

The rice blast study provides lessons for disease management. Blast remains a threat when cool, humid weather coincides with tillering and panicle formation. Regular checks of fields, tolerant or resistant varieties, balanced fertilization and careful water management can reduce the risk.

Weeds also compete with rice for nutrients and moisture. Insect pests can increase during warm, dry spells or after heavy rain, and climate variability can lengthen the periods favorable to outbreaks. Integrated pest management combines ways of monitoring and controlling pests, supported by timely advice and access to inputs, to limit losses without sharply increasing costs.

Breeding rice that tolerates disease and climate stress, maintaining surveillance for blast and other threats, and keeping extension visits going throughout the season are priorities. Farmers need advice while a problem can still be managed, rather than after the damage is complete.

Soil nutrients and better seed matter together

Bhutanese farmers have long used farmyard manure, crop residues and forest litter to maintain soil fertility. Access to chemical fertilizers remains uneven, and nitrogen shortages limit yields in many districts. Balancing organic materials with carefully managed mineral inputs, where available, can improve nutrient supplies during critical stages of rice growth.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are particular concerns. Advice on timing fertilizer applications and dividing them across the season can improve both yields and the efficient use of inputs. The FAO yield gap guidance provides context for efforts to bring farm harvests closer to their potential.

Biochar is another option under consideration. It is a material rich in carbon made by heating crop residues with little oxygen. Trials in Bhutan and neighboring regions found improvements in soil health and higher yields across several crops when appropriate amounts were applied.

Rice husks from mills could supply material for biochar in paddy areas. Adoption remains limited by access and awareness, while excessive application can have harmful results. Farmer training, careful guidelines and trials of suitable amounts are needed before wider use. A biochar background explainer describes the approach.

Quality seed is equally important for vigorous crop establishment and disease tolerance. Bhutan has released and promoted the Bajo and Yusi varieties, but seed supply can be thin, particularly in remote communities. Local groups that multiply seed, backed by certification and links to district agriculture centers, could help farmers replace aging seed stocks more regularly.

Improving seed and soil management becomes more pressing as cultivated area contracts. Farmers need locally adapted varieties and advice suited to their fields, including demonstrations of transplanting density, weed control and water scheduling. Weather and pest alerts delivered through mobile services could support timely decisions.

Organic ambitions bring production tradeoffs

Environmental protection is central to Bhutan's national identity, and the country has explored a complete transition to organic agriculture. Research led by Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin assessed the likely consequences and estimated that full conversion could reduce agricultural production by about 15 percent.

Conventional farmers could face yield reductions of nearly one quarter, especially for rice and potatoes. The study warned that moving rapidly could increase dependence on imported food and strain the goal of greater food self sufficiency.

Policy has since focused on a gradual, targeted approach. A review of the organic program records 6 percent of arable land as registered and 3 percent as certified under local organic assurance. The production estimates help explain why the pace and location of conversion matter for food supplies.

Agriculture accounted for 14.7 percent of Bhutan's GDP in 2022. The sector must now respond to demographic and climate changes while balancing environmental goals with the need to maintain harvests and farmer incomes.

Practical support from planting to storage

An account of climate smart agriculture argues that Bhutan can improve productivity and resilience through a connected set of measures. These include consolidating farmland where possible, using machines suited to small terraces, researching new varieties, improving water management, and strengthening harvesting and storage.

Programs that build skills among women and young people are part of that approach. Better logistics, market access and handling after harvest would help farmers retain more of what they produce and get it to buyers in better condition.

Several practical measures address the costs and risks that occur beyond the field:

• Improve drying, storage and local milling, activate processing centers, and use handling manuals tailored to each crop to reduce losses in quantity and quality.
• Provide seasonal credit for inputs and water infrastructure so households can invest when planting decisions are made.
• Pilot insurance linked to weather measurements, designed to pay quickly after floods or droughts.
• Promote vegetables, pulses and fruits in farming systems with several layers of crops to spread income and risk while keeping core paddy areas productive.
• Fund research, seed production and extension services together so new practices are supported through the growing season.

These proposals complement repairs to irrigation, wildlife defenses, better seed and balanced soil nutrition. Their usefulness depends on adaptation to local terrain and farm structure, backed by extension support that farmers can reach.

Different districts need different choices

Punakha benefits from broad valley floors, historic irrigation works and access to markets. Those conditions help explain its leading position in rice production. Districts with steep slopes and patchy water supplies face a different calculation, and many households have moved toward cereals and vegetables better suited to their conditions.

The decline in upland growers from 1,907 to 825 in four years shows how quickly marginal fields are leaving rice production. Switching crops can be a reasonable household decision, but it reduces national rice production capacity at a time when climate shocks can also disrupt imports.

Rice heartlands need reliable water, disease management, improved seed and consistent access to suitable machinery. In upland areas, rice may remain in the most viable pockets while other crops provide a larger share of household production and income.

Programs such as CARLEP have shown that diversified farming connected to markets can raise incomes and help manage risk. A single model will not suit every district. The practical aim is to keep viable paddies productive, protect farmers against avoidable losses and give households realistic choices that support food security.

What to Know

• Rice provides 53 percent of Bhutan's daily dietary energy, but domestic farms meet only 45 percent of demand. Imports come largely from India.
• The 2024 paddy harvest totaled 41,537.28 tonnes. Irrigated output rose 1.94 percent, while upland output fell 23 percent.
• Irrigated paddy growers declined to 20,920 in 2024 from 23,620 in 2021. Upland growers fell to 825 from 1,907 in 2020.
• Punakha produced 8,027.35 tonnes in 2024, compared with 47 tonnes in Pemagatshel.
• Labor shortages, fragmented land, wildlife raids, unreliable irrigation, disease and soil nutrient gaps are putting pressure on farms.
• Climate studies project continued crop pressure and greater flood damage in important river basins.
• Research estimated that complete organic conversion could reduce agricultural output by about 15 percent, supporting a gradual approach.
• Priorities include irrigation repairs, wildlife protection, quality seed, balanced nutrition, suitable machinery, better storage and sustained farmer support.