Bhutan Agrifood Systems Jobs Diagnostic : Making the Agrifood System an Engine for More and Better-Paid Jobs

Overview & Synopsis

Bhutan’s agrifood system (AFS) contributes to income and employment generation, but its role beyond primary production is not properly understood. Standard development models, national accounting, and household or labor force surveys (LFS) tend to narrowly define agriculture as primary production and omit the output and employment generated by workers and firms that connect farms to final consumers. Understanding the role of the AFS in Bhutan’s labor market is both important and urgent. Bhutan’s labor market is currently facing an existential threat of youth outmigration and unemployment as a result of a gradual but incomplete structural transformation process. The Bhutan Agrifood Systems Jobs Diagnostic addresses two important policy questions on how the AFS can contribute to More and Better-Paid Jobs (MBJ). This information helps policy makers to identify emerging employment opportunities, which occupations offer better outcomes, which workers are positioned to access them, and what interventions may be needed to facilitate labor movement. Second, the Diagnostic assesses how much additional employment would be demanded if Bhutanese value chains can respond to growing demand for Bhutanese priority high-value commodities. This information informs policy makers about the potential pathways through which the AFS can contribute to MBJ and what type of investments in infrastructure, policy reforms, and an enabling agribusiness environment are needed to transform the AFS.