Transcript Staff Training

Agriculture Infrastructure:
Retrospect and Prospects
MINJUR DORJI, CE
ENGINEERING DIVISION, MOAF
AUGUST 2010
Presentation Outline
 Institutional Background
 10FYP objectives and targets
 Key stakeholders: their roles &




responsibilities
MoAF’s support programs to DES
Issues concerning Agriculture
Infrastructures
Way Forward
Discussions 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
Engg. Office at
RDCs
CMU
Mongar, Bajo
&Bhur
HO Bumthnag
Branch Office
Khangma
Branch Office
Gelephu
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 irrigation
 Target
 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
 DoR
 Is 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
Capacity
• Trained about 268 engineers on FR/Irrigation related
activities from 07 through 10
• Initiated outsourcing of survey/design and
supervision of FR
Implementationsoftware part
• Produced revised FR guidelines, specifications and
maintenance manuals
• Revised National Irrigation Policy to improve irrigation and
water management
Implementationhardware 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
Current Farm Road Status
Farm Roads as of June 2010=1364km
Series1, Mongar, 359
Series1, Trashigang, 273
K
i
l
o
m
Series1, Lhuentse,
190 Paro,
Series1,
190 Punakha, 188
Series1,
e
Series1, Wangdue, 175
t
Series1, Pemagatshel,
Series1, Dagana, 149
e
Series1,Series1,
Trashiyangtse,
Tsirang, 139
138
r
125
Series1,
Chukha, 122
Series1, Trongsa, 121
s
Series1, SJ, 107
Series1,
Sarpang,
97
Series1,
Samtse,
96
Series1, Zhemgang, 95
Series1, Bumthang, 85
Series1, Haa, 71
Series1, Thimphu, 51
Series1, Gasa, 9
Current Farm Road Status -cont
 Households and FR network as of 2009
Least 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 -cont
 Households and FR network by 2013
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)
 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.
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 FR
 As of June 2009, we have a total of 1364 km of






Farm Roads and PTTs
As per the 10 FYP document, we would have 4632
km of FR by 2013
Lack of commitment by various stakeholder to
maintain FR
Difficult 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