According to the Royal Monetary Authority’s annual report 2024, over the previous five years, employment in the agricultural sector has decreased while the sector’s GDP contribution has increased. In 2023, 43.5 percent of workers were employed in the agriculture sector, down from 54 percent in 2018. This suggests that the nation’s economy is moving toward the industrial and service sectors. The gender and regional disparities within the sector are also highlighted in the report. With 64.9 percent of the workforce working as farmers, agriculture continues to be the main employer in rural areas. Despite its significance, the agriculture industry has problems, such as low productivity in comparison to other industries. In 2023, agricultural productivity was 95.6 percent, while the nation’s total labor productivity was 98 percent.
On the other hand, capital-intensive industries like hydropower drove higher productivity in non-agricultural sectors like industry and services. Additionally, agricultural earnings continue to be much lower than those in other industries. Workers in agriculture put in an average of fifty hours a week, which is more than the 48-hour international standard and Bhutan’s Labour and Employment Act of 2007. According to the report, the nation’s agriculture sector is vulnerable to a number of threats that impede its progress toward commercialization, such as shifting weather patterns, water scarcity, conflicts with wildlife, fragmented landholdings, and a reliance on traditional farming methods.
