Bhutan banks on high-altitude hazelnuts to remake mountain farming

Farmer Pema Dema had never even heard of hazelnuts when she was first recruited to begin growing them on her land in Bhutan’s Thimphu region.

“I wondered what sort of a nut it was,” the 58-year-old said with a laugh, looking out over the deep valley and terraced rice fields that unfold below her farm.

Now she has more than 140 hazelnut trees on the steep slope overlooking her home, and incorporates them into Bhutan’s traditional salted suja tea when guests visit.

Pema is one of thousands of Bhutanese growing hazelnuts as part of a social enterprise hoping to help subsistence farmers develop a high-value crop.

Mountain Hazelnuts began in 2009 as Bhutan’s first 100 per cent foreign direct investment project in the agriculture sector.

More than 40 per cent of Bhutan’s workforce is employed in agriculture, but production remains largely subsistence-based and is complicated by the country’s mountainous terrain.