February 11-12, Gelephu: The Hon’ble Sanam Lyonpo graced the opening of the two day long RNR Extension Conference 2019 themed “Knowing More From The Grassroots” that was held at Gelephu from 11-12 February 2019 organized and coordinated by Policy and Planning Division (PPD) and Agriculture Research and Development Center (ARDC), Samtenling of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF). The conference was exclusively organized for the Gewog Extension staffs of South-Central region comprising of six Dzongkhags of Bumthang, Trongsa, Zhemgang, Sarpang, Samtse and Tsirang with the objectives to share the national aspirations and expectations from extension personnel, learn field issues and constraints, get field recommendations, and share best practices of different dzongkhags through which the 12 FYP plans and programs are better implemented. A total of 138 Gewog Extension Staffs and representatives from the departments of the MoAF participated in the conference chaired by the Director of the Department of Agriculture. The conference was funded by the European Union RNR Sector Support Program.
In the opening remarks, Lyonpo highlighted on the need for striving hard to attain the food self-sufficiency goal which is not only for meeting the domestic food requirements but also for export of RNR products. For this, it was important for the RNR Sectors to prioritize on three key areas of interventions such as production capacity optimization, post-harvest management and marketing strategy. 
The concerted efforts of all RNR staffs at all levels to work as a team and through consolidation and sharing of new ideas was important to achieve the goals and objectives of the ministry, and more importantly to help our farming communities earn cash income as is done through initiation of activities like “Foothills Festival” of Sarpang Dzongkhag.
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Mountain Hazelnuts (MH) conducted a large-scale grafting programme being undertaken with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests at its Annual Technical Conference held at Gyelposhing College of Information Technology. The grafting programme is designed to rapidly increase nut production by giving hazelnut orchards a full complement of suitable pollenizer varieties. MH field staff, along with hired master grafters, will make approximately 1 million grafts across more than 5,000 acres of hazelnut trees from February – April 2019.
Additional ARDC staff will be involved in a series of multi-day field trainings at three locations around the country from 12 – 20 February.