General information
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Production season
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Write-up taken from the IRRI's Rice Almanac (2013):
Bhutan, surrounded by India and China high in the Himalayas, is a tiny nation of 38,394 km2 with a 2010 population of 725,940. Apart from snow-covered mountains, there are southern tropical plains and central temperate plains. Only 2% of the land is arable, and half of that is on steep mountainsides. Although the share of agriculture in GDP is gradually decreasing (18.7% of GDP in 2009), agriculture provided livelihood to 65.4% of the population in 2009.
The improved communication facilities in the country during the last 10 years increased the trend from a subsistence basis in agriculture toward cash crops. The number of mechanized farms is increasing as a result of the government’s sizable investments and subsidy on machinery and other inputs.
Source: FAOSTAT database online and AQUASTAT database online, as of November 2012.