Food Security at a Glance

Food security in Bhutan is an important, cross-cutting theme that includes: agriculture; forestry; livestock breeding; urban and rural populations; macro, regional, and local interventions; government, private sector, community, and household actions; and short and longer term strategies. Conversations of the food security situation in Bhutan need to consider household food availability, access, and utilization. Food availability is determined by the level of food supplies, production and market supplies stemming from domestic production, food stocks and food imports. Access to food is the ability to acquire food, both physically and economically. Utilization refers to an individual's nutrition, care practices, and ability to productively use their caloric intake.

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Current food security strategies address the links between sustainable development, poverty reduction and the promotion of food security in food insecure areas. Bhutan advocates a broad definition of food security based on the principle of self-reliance and comparative advantage. This definition takes into account the many factors that impact food security at a household level, including capacity to trade and competitiveness of domestic production.

Availability

Food availability in Bhutan varies among and within different districts and geogs (blocks), and is often influenced by site-specific factors. The reasons for food shortages are usually linked to food and agricultural productivity. About 70 percent of reasons for food shortages are related to land (inadequate, unproductive, or lack of land). Since large portions of the population are dependent on subsistence agriculture, increasing productivity is seen as a key factor in achieving food self-sufficiency. Those who do not produce enough cereals for the whole year rely on cash procurement of food or borrowing of food or barter of livestock products for cereals. Cash is earned through cash crop, sale of livestock or livestock products, collection of forest products for sale, labour or cash remittances received from relatives or others. At times, loans are taken by smaller farmers.

Food Consumption and Dietary Diversity

The Poverty Analysis Report 2007 reports that 5.9 percent of people in Bhutan suffer from food poverty or consume less than 2,124 kilocalories per day. However, as the food basket taken for this food poverty line includes expensive products like confectionary, milk powder, fresh and dried fish, beef, walnuts, tea and juice. A more realistic food poverty line for 2,124 kilocalories per day based on basic food items like cereals, pulses and vegetable oil would only be costing 37 percent of the food basket used in PAR 2007. Generally, this indicates a relatively food secure population but certain areas in the country do experience food insecurity and seasonal hunger. Of the total food consumption in Bhutan, urban populations are responsible for 37 percent of food intake, the rest is consumed in rural areas. The share of meat consumption and food consumed outside the home is higher in urban areas than it is among rural households. Rice accounts for a higher share of food consumption in rural households than in urban households, indicating potential risks for protein and micronutrient deficiencies and poor nutrition status in rural households.

Education

Bhutan has made vast improvements in primary and secondary education since the inception of modern education system four decades ago. This notable in the growth of enrollment at all levels of education, particularly the primary and secondary levels. Bhutan has with its complex geography and remote scattered communities faced enormous challenges in providing education for all school children, nevertheless Bhutan remains on track to achieve the MDG of universalizing primary education. While Bhutan, given the accelerated rate of progress in enhancing net enrollment, is likely to achieve the target, their present levels especially at the secondary level is still low by regional and global standards, indicating the challenges that remain.

Addressing the various obstacles to increasing primary education coverage and removing spatial disparities in the levels of enrollment, quality education in urban and rural areas and among poor and non-poor will require greater attention. The Bhutan Millenium Development Goals Needs Assessment and Costing Report 2007 estimated that education interventions will require the largest share (24.4 percent) of the total MDG resources needed.

Health, Nutrition and Food Utilization

Since the start of planned development in 1961, the health sector has made tremendous achievements in the expansion of basic health services. Today, it is estimated that more than 90 percent of the country has access to health services. In 2000, the National Health Survey (NHS) estimated life expectancy at 66.1 years, an improvement from 45.6 years in 1984. The infant mortality rate declined from 70.7 per 1000 live births in 1994 (NHS, 1994) to 40.1 in 2005 (PHCB, 2005). Under 5 (U5) mortality dropped by 36 percent from 96.9 per 1000 live births to 61.6 per 1000 live births over the same period. However, there is the challenge of addressing spatial disparities regarding nutritional status; communities from the eastern and rural regions of Bhutan experience notably higher levels of malnutrition and food poverty than other regions and urban areas.

Vulnerability

Food security in Bhutan is an issue of access to resources and economic opportunities. For rural households, who constitue about 69 percent of the population, difficulties arise from a inconsistent lack of access to land and water, preventing them from growing their own food. For urban, non-farming rural and the landless populations, vulnerability stems largely from unpredictable employment opportunities. Therefore, the strategic approach to food security starts by identifying the size and location of the population and defining various groups' capacities to cope with food insecurity. Food access issues in the country are bound up with extreme topographical variation, wide ecological, agricultural and economic diversity, and poor connectivity. Despite increased rice and maize yields, production has only been able to meet rural demands, while increased urban requirements are mostly met through imports. This is mainly because agriculture in Bhutan has remained at subsistence levels because of limited arable land, inadequate market access, and high transaction costs. Some other difficulties are the prevalence of natural calamities such as landslides, floods, droughts, crop failures, pests and diseases, wildlife crop damage, poor irrigation infrastructure, and an imbalance between rural labor supply and demand.