{"id":448,"date":"2009-02-20T16:06:01","date_gmt":"2009-02-20T10:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/?p=448"},"modified":"2009-02-20T16:06:01","modified_gmt":"2009-02-20T10:06:01","slug":"nabji-korphus-cardamom-glory-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/20\/nabji-korphus-cardamom-glory-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Nabji-Korphu\u2019s cardamom glory days"},"content":{"rendered":"

A blight once decimated their only cash crop, now hope springs anew\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The cardamom disease left Nabji-Korphu high and dry<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

20 February, 2009 –\u00a0<\/strong>A sweet fragrance of cardamom fills the air in Nabji Korphu as the evening breeze blows over the quiet village. But the cardamom story is not as sweet as its fragrance when villagers recall how their main cash crop was wiped out a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Located at the foothills of the rugged Black Mountain range between Trongsa and Zhemgang dzongkhags, Nabji Korphu was once famous for its abundance of cardamom, claim villagers. Not anymore.<\/p>\n

Today, acres of cardamom plantation lie overgrown with bushes and farmers, who\u2019d grown rich on the spice, blame a disease, which dried their source of cash.<\/p>\n

It all started in the early 1990s, say farmers. \u201cThe plant\u2019s leaves turned yellow, wilted and died; the fruit became hard and the juice white,\u201d said a farmer. \u201cIt was all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blight (a plant disease), which affected many cardamom growing regions, did not spare Nabji- Korphu. \u201cWithin years, villagers started working as daily wage earners for cash,\u201d said a farmer.<\/p>\n

Villagers said that, a decade ago, people of Nabji Korphu were fairly rich. With cardamom as their staple cash crop, almost all of the 221 households earned about Nu 20,000 to Nu 150,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Money was not a problem when people cultivated cardamom, according to Dubala, a 55-year-old villager from Nabji. \u201cEven a small child used to carry money in his hemchu,\u201d he says. Dubala\u2019s last bumper harvest about six years ago fetched him Nu 70,000.<\/p>\n

One of the oldest residents of Korphu, Tshewang Dema, 80, said that the then Trongsa dzongda, Adap Sangay, encouraged the people in her village to grow cardamom in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n

Tshewang Dema said that the people got cardamom seeds from Gaon village of Sarpang dzongkhag to cultivate in their dry land. \u201cAfter five years, most people harvested and sold cardamom, earning income with which they constructed houses, bought CGI sheets and also wet land from landowners in Bumthang,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tashi Dorji, 67, from Korphu, said that he grew cardamom on his three and a half acres of dry land. \u201cI used to reap about five mon of cardamom every year and get about Nu 23,000,\u201d said Tashi Dorji.<\/p>\n

According to Tashi Dorji, since cardamom was the main source of income, farmers with large land holdings in Nabji Korphu grew cardamom on 10 acres, while those with smaller ones used six to seven acres. \u201cThe poorest one also owned one acre of cardamom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A father of five school going children, Karma, 44, said that life became harder after all the cardamom in his four-acre dry land died. \u201cI used to earn well from elaichi (cardamom), but now I face a lot of problem in educating my children,\u201d he said, adding that, once a self-sufficient farmer, he now has to do all kinds of work to keep his family living. \u201cI bought horses and worked as porter, I opened a shop and I tried to do some contract works too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

How the coveted spice improved villagers\u2019 living standards is still evident. Kuenga, 73, from Nabji owns a two-storied traditional house and was one of the earliest in the village to use CGI roofing, solar panels, and sinks in the bathrooms. \u201cIt was all because of cardamom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But, with the disease, which he calls an epidemic, Kuenga said he had to take loans for his children\u2019s education. \u201cWe did everything to revive our source of cash crop but nothing worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an effort to save the cardamom, villagers changed seeds and tried cultivating in new plantations. New varieties of seeds were brought from Kalimpong. Korphu gup Wangda said that the gewog, through the GYT and DYT, requested the then agriculture minister, who provided trial seeds.<\/p>\n

According to the dzongkhag agriculture officer, Nawang Chogyal, the disease caused huge losses to people, although no records were maintained in the dzongkhags. However, the dzongkhag agriculture office tried to revive it on small scale and brought about three acres of land under plantation by trying seeds from Gaon village, Sarpang. \u201cIt\u2019s showing good signs and the dzongkhag is planning to scale up the area of plantation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2008, about 200 kg of cardamom from the trial seeds were sold, which is encouraging, according to the agriculture officer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source:
\nkuenselonline.com
\nBy Tashi Dema
\nt_dyel@kuensel.com.bt<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A blight once decimated their only cash crop, now hope springs anew\u00a0 The cardamom disease left Nabji-Korphu high and dry 20 February, 2009 –\u00a0A sweet fragrance of cardamom fills the air in Nabji Korphu as the evening breeze blows over the quiet village. But the cardamom story is not as sweet as its fragrance when … Continue reading Nabji-Korphu\u2019s cardamom glory days<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetobhutan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}