April 12, 2022

The livelihood of nomads living in some of the remote communities was not spared by the pandemic. With the closure of movement across the border in the North, the highlanders lost the market across the border for their dairy products. The excess dairy products were left to go to waste and even fed to their cattle.

One such community is Soe, a remote village near the Jomolhari region in the north of Thimphu, located at an altitude of over 15,000 ft. The residents are yak herders and yak rearing is their main source of livelihood with cordyceps collection on a seasonal basis.

The Small Grants support was provided to the Soe Lanor Cooperative, a member of the Yak Federation initiated by the Royal Government of Bhutan. The cooperative has 30 yak-rearing household members with a yak population of 1,714 and produces 83 metric tons of milk annually.

The objective of the project is to help the Cooperative’s products reach the market. A common facility is to be established to store, process and package the products. The herders will be trained in improved and hygienic practices of processing soft yak cheese to label it as their product, a part of a bigger initiative known as ‘One Cooperative One Product.’

• 30 members of Soe Lanor Cooperative  will benefit from the project
• One common facility to be set up with processing & packaging machines to increase product shelf-life
• Develop Soe Lanor Cooperative’s ‘One Cooperative One Product’