Being a country in the Himalayas, Bhutan is highly prone to the vagaries of weather events that affect agricultural production and the subsequent livelihood of the people. To identify the main issues that affect crop production and the decisions of farmers, a survey was conducted in three different agro-ecosystems in Bhutan. Our key findings indicate that farming and the decisions of farmers were largely affected by different climatic and non-climatic factors. These were in descending order of importance: irrigation availability > farm labour > crop seasonality > crop damage (climatic) > land holding > crop damage (wildlife) > crop damage (diseases and pests). The most important consequences of climate change impacts were the drying of irrigation sources (4.35) and crop losses due to weather events (4.10), whereas land fallowing, the occurrence of flood and soil erosion, weed pressure and changes in cropping pattern (with mean ratings of 2.53–3.03) experienced lesser consequences. The extreme weather events, such as untimely rains, drought and windstorms, were rated as the ‘most common’ to ‘common’ occurrences, thus inflicting a crop loss of 1–19%. These confirm our hearsay knowledge that extreme weather events have major consequences on irrigation water, which is said to be either drying or getting smaller in comparison to the past. Therefore, Bhutan must step up its on-ground farmer-support system towards improving the country’s food production, whilst embracing climate smart farm technologies for adapting to the impacts of change.

The current research investigated the present and future projected distribution of rice (Oryza sativaL.) based on climatic suitability under three representative concentration pathways (RCPs) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change using maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modelling. The MaxEnt models predict that rice distribution in Bhutan will undergo major changes in terms of spatial range shift of varying magnitudes by 2060. Under the anthropogenic radiative forcing of RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, ecological space of rice is predicted to change between 1 and 43%. Major changes are likely to take place in major rice-growing ecological zones of the country. This is likely to have a negative impact on the livelihood and food security of the people as crop production might start declining due to unfavourable climatic factors. Therefore, the findings of this study could prove beneficial for forecasting focus sites requiring interventions, including future climate research, planning, policy formulation and conservation of natural resources.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is an indispensable commodity, mainly cultivated by high-altitude mountain households, that sustains and supports the livelihood of an overwhelming 51% of the Bhutanese population. The popularity of potato cultivation among Bhutanese farmers can be attributed to the crop’s adaptability to a wide range of agroclimatic conditions such as a rainfed crop, high productivity, an assured market, and a reliable source of income for the farming families. We hypothesize that the changing climate would make the livelihood associated with potato cultivation in Bhutan more vulnerable. We tested this hypothesis to identify the sources of vulnerability of smallholder farming households using the Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and LVI-IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) approaches in six potato growing districts of Bhutan: Bumthang, Chukha, Gasa, Mongar, Tashigang, and Wangdue. Primary data were generated through a semi structured sample survey of 240 households on the seven major livelihood components of sociodemographic profiles, livelihood strategies, social networks, health, food, water, natural disasters, and climate variability. The results showed that the LVI (range 0.302 to 0.375) and LVI-IPCC (range −0.005 to 0.030) differed significantly (p < 0.001) across the districts. The districts of Tashigang and Mongar were less vulnerable than the other four districts by the LVI approach, whereas Bumthang was also revealed to be less vulnerable using the LVI-IPCC approach. The degree of vulnerability in a district differed according to their level of exposure and adaptive capacity to the climate change impacts of the potato farming household. The results are expected to serve as empirical evidence for designing a future course of actions to mitigate the negative impacts.

Definition: Wild edible plants (WEPs) grow naturally in self-maintaining ecosystems. WEPs are harvested for consumption, sale, and medicinal uses. We hypothesize that WEPs play a major role in supplying food and generating income for the rural people in a world that is increasingly recognising its emerging conservation issues. We tested this hypothesis by identifying the reasons for harvest, consumption, and conservation of WEPs using focus group discussion, field observations and questionnaire surveys in south eastern Bhutan in late 2019. Methods: Focused group discussions were held with the local people to identify reasons for harvest and consumption of WEPs. Data on the identified reasons for harvest, consumption, and conserving WEPs were determined using a questionnaire survey with ranking scales for a set of 76 randomly selected households. Representative field-observations and questionnaire surveys were carried out in villages close to forests. Parts of the plant used, how these were consumed, harvest season, and plant (life form) were recorded. The data was subjected to a Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test and weighted averages calculated. Result and conclusion: A total of 120 WEPs belonging to 63 families (including Agaricaceae) were reported. Most of the WEPs recorded were trees (45.0%) then herbs (25.8%), vines (13.3%) and shrubs (10.8%). The commonly consumed plant parts were the fruit (43.3%), shoots (28.3%) and leaves (20.8%). The purposes for harvesting and consumption, conservation of WEPs were significantly (P sale > medicinal uses > preservation for future use > insufficient food from cultivated source’s. The two most important strategies for conservation were to domesticate the WEPs and cultivate in forests. The findings reveal valuable lessons and insights about the reasons for harvesting, collection, consumption, and conservation of WEPs.