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Tang Farmers
Tang Rigtshel Tshogpa (“Tang Skills Group”)
In 2018, Tshering Wangmo (known to friends and colleagues as “Ongmo”) founded the Tang Rigtshel Tshogpa in Tang valley, Bumthang, a group made up of farmers intent on farming organically. Ongmo was the OFEP candidate in 2016 and together she and other young farmers from Tang, among them those who previously were in Salzburg on farming study tour, decided to create synergies and work together, especially on post-harvesting processes, packaging and marketing.
In 2018 the local administration in Tang sponsored a greenhouse the group. They started to grow winter vegetables and herbs. This has proved successful and the Tang Farmers are now looking into producing a range of items including ginger and carrot candies, buckwheat cookies, honey, pectin and other products like jams and herbal teas. In 2020 Ongmo herself started cultivating strawberries to additionally supply fruit pulp to dairy farms for flavoured yoghurt.
Challenges
Ongmo is the founder and heart of the group. The number of farmers she cooperates with fluctuates and poses challenges. However, Ongmo has found a suitable market in Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital, where her products are also sold at the One Gewog One Product Shop (OGOP, “the queen’s project”), an initiative set up by the queen of Bhutan to help market Bhutanese farmers’ products.
