FILE PHOTO: Phobjikha Valley in central Bhutan is filled with thousands of black-necked cranes. Young people are leaving for better opportunities in urban areas, seeking employment, education and improved living conditions.- MELODY L. GOH/The Star
THIMPHU: A study by the Good Governance Committee (GGC) of the National Council of Bhutan warns of a growing rural crisis marked by satong (abandoned land) and goongtong (vacant households), calling for immediate government intervention to reverse what it describes as an alarming trend threatening the country’s agrarian backbone and food security.
The GGC’s findings reveal that between 2010 and 2019, Bhutan witnessed a ten per cent decline in cultivated land, with wetland rice fields—the bedrock of rural livelihoods—hit the hardest. Nearly 6,000 households, primarily in the eastern regions, have been abandoned, contributing to a rapid depopulation of rural areas.
