Challenges of Agricultural Farmers’ Groups and Cooperatives in Eastern Bhutan

Bhutan has been promoting Farmers’ Groups (FGs) and Cooperatives (Coops) – also referred to as ‘group’ or ‘groups’ in this study – to cater to the agricultural transition from subsistence to commercial farming. Despite the increasing number of groups in the country, their challenges remain unexplored, especially in Eastern Bhutan. Therefore, this study assessed the challenges of these groups in six Eastern districts of Bhutan. Face-to-face interviews using the semi-structured questionnaire were conducted to collect data from 301 members of groups selected via the proportionate random sampling. The results from the principal component analysis show that FGs and Coops in Bhutan face five major challenges: (1) group management issues; (2) technological and financial issues; (3) marketing issues; (4) farm input issues; and (5) member retention issues. The five components explained 19.42%, 11.81%, 7.70%, 6.88%, and 5.92% of the variance; and overall, they explained 52% of the total variance. Accordingly, effectual group formation, group management training, farm machinery and input subsidization, contract business escalation, product value addition, and existing group reinforcement are recommended. Keywords: Agricultural Challenges, Farmers’ Group, Cooperatives, Bhutan