MINJUR DORJI, CEENGINEERING DIVISION, MOAF

AUGUST 2010

Agriculture Infrastructure:Retrospect and Prospects

Presentation Outline

Institutional Background10FYP objectives and targetsKey stakeholders: their roles &

responsibilitiesMoAF’s support programs to DESIssues concerning Agriculture

InfrastructuresWay ForwardDiscussions Points

Institutional Background

Until 2000 MoAF maintained 2-3 engineers in each d/khag.

Restructuring in 2000 merged all engineers under the MoWHS

Currently 26 engineers in MoAF Main program are Farm Roads, Irrigation

and Building Constructions

Organogram of the Engineering Division

Chief Engineer

CMU HO Bumthnag

Irrigation Section Farm Road Section Building Section

10FYP Program Objectives & Targets

Irrigation: Objectives To increase wetland under dry season irrigation To promote water harvesting, drip and sprinkler irrigation To explore ground water and large scale irrigationTarget New-1016km Renovation-1269km

10FYP Program Objectives & Targets-contd

Farm Roads: Objective To reduce proportion of rural population living more than

1hrs walk from road head from 40 -20% Target New Construction-3268km Rehabilitation (under GOI Small Development Project)-255km

10FYP Program Objectives & Targets-contd

Key stakeholders: their roles & responsibilities

MoAF Provide policy guidelines on agriculture

infrastructure development Setting up technical standards and

specifications for farm road, irrigation and other civil constructions

National planning and programming of agriculture infrastructure development under central and area development projects

Key stakeholders: their roles & responsibilities

MoAF-contd Provide technical assistance in survey, design

and estimate of farm road, irrigation and other civil constructions

Provide relevant trainings to d/khag engineers on irrigation and farm roads

Conduct periodic monitoring and reporting of agriculture infrastructure to Ministry and government

Provide CMU machinery to dzongkhags for construction of farm roads

Key stakeholders: their roles & responsibilities

DoRIs responsible for setting up design

standards for all road development in the country, as per the Road Act 2004

Under 10th Plan- is responsible for survey and design of all Gewog-connecting farm roads

Design and estimate of farm road bridges

Key stakeholder: their roles & responsibilities

Dzongkhags and Geogs (DES and DAO) Prepare FY/annual plans and budget Carry out pre-feasibility studies Implement infrastructure programs Supervision and quality control Physical and financial reporting

MoAF support to strengthen DES • Trained about 268 engineers on

FR/Irrigation related activities from 07 through 10

• Initiated outsourcing of survey/design and supervision of FR

Capacity• Produced revised FR guidelines, specifications

and maintenance manuals• Revised National Irrigation Policy to improve

irrigation and water management

Implementation- software

part• Provides earth moving equipments for FR

construction• Another 20 excavator and other machinery

worth 597ml yen expected next April• A total station each will be supplied to 20

d/khags next month for survey/design• Current ADP infrastructure projects-ADB,

WB,IFAD, GoI, Danish Mixed Credit

Implementation- hardware

part

Current Farm Road Status

Bumtha

ng

Chuk

ha

Dagana Gasa Haa

Lhuen

tseMon

gar

Paro

Pemaga

tshel

Punakh

a SJ

Samtse

Sarpan

g

Trashi

gang

Thimph

u

Trong

sa

Trashi

yang

tseTsi

rang

Wangdue

Zhem

gang

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

85

122149

9

71

190

359

190

138

188

107 96 97

273

51

121 125 139175

95

Farm Roads as of June 2010=1364km

Kilometers

Current Farm Road Status -contHouseholds and FR network as of 2009Least connected (HH/ km FR) Best connected (HH/km FR)

Samtse ( 314 ) Punakha (21)

Samdrup Jongkhar (280) Lhuentse (27)

Chukha (160) Trongsa (29)

Sarpang (139) Bumthang (30)

Thimphu(104)

Current Farm Road Status -contHouseholds and FR network by 2013

By the end of 10 FYP, on average a km of farm road would serve 19 numbers of HH. And that number would be even less if we consider the roads under DoR, current rural-urban migration trend, whereby the number of rural households might get even fewer.

Least connected (HH/ km FR) Best connected (HH/ km FR)Punakha (7)

Sarpang ( 57 ) Paro (8)Samtse (54) Mongar (9)Thimphu (51) S/Jongkhar (13)

Zhemgang (13)Wangdue (14)

Issues concerning Implementation of Agriculture Infrastructures

Weak institutional linkage between DES and Engg Division, MoAF

Decentralization of infrastructure programs to Geog

Lack of manpower and capacity at d/khags and geogs for proper planning & pre-feasibility studies of FR and irrigation programs

Beneficiary contribution causing delays in a development of irrigation schemes

DES no more involved in irrigation software parts

Issues concerning Implementation of Agriculture Infrastructures-cont

Quality vs quantity of FRAs of June 2009, we have a total of 1364 km of

Farm Roads and PTTsAs per the 10 FYP document, we would have 4632

km of FR by 2013Lack of commitment by various stakeholder to

maintain FRDifficult to maintain lengthy farm roads (>15km)Environment Clearance Capacity building-whose responsibility?Roads Right of Way for FRs

Way Forward

Roads to gewog centres once completed, must be considered as Feeder Road and handed over to the Department of Roads, MoWHS for maintenance

A Road Master Plan for all types of road would not only give a holistic plan but also save lot of duplication and resources.

It would be a worthy trial to allocate an excavator to each Dzongkhag for maintenance of Farm Roads.

Decentralize Environmental clearance to d/kahgs

Way Forward

It is proposed that all FR longer than 15 km must be upgraded to Feeder Roads, and therefore maintained by the Government. It is more realistic to expect communities to maintain roads that are less than 15 kms

Appropriate forum should be established amongst engineering agencies to interact and thrash out cross cutting issues

Specialization of engineers in road, irrigation and building needs to be looked into to improve quality of construction

Separate engineers for MoAF or at least RNR focal engineers in each dzongkhag

Discussion Points

Is there a need to review decentralization of infrastructure programs to geog level?

Should we take roads to every scattered households or whether some households should move to where facilities already exist?

Shouldn’t we consider specialization of engineers?Should MoAF have its own engineer/or at least two focal

engineer (one for FR & building and another for irrigation) in each dzongkhags?

Should each d/khag be alloted one payloader each to maintain FRs?

Measurement Book-is it really required (recurrent issue)?Decentralization of EC for FR/Irrigation to d/khags

Thank You& Tashi Delek