Farm Level Decision Making on Choosing the Right Enterprise -A guide to NFE Instructors and Learners
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Council for RNR-Research of Bhutan Ministry of Agriculture & Department of Adult and Higher Education, Ministry of Education, June 2007

Introduction
Bhutan is an agrarian society where farming is the main source of livelihood for about 70 percent of the country's population. With increased literacy rate, rural urban migration is increasing, thereby leaving the farm work to the elderly and a few able bodied people. Farming in Bhutan is also characterized by difficult terrain, low productivity, fragmented land and limited technologies/varieties.

Under these circumstances, the challenge at hand is how to make optimal use of the available resources and make farming an attractive enterprise. Solutions do exist but is not available when it is most required. Ultimately, farmers are the one who are severely affected because of the lack of effective decision making knowledge. On potential area is to help farmers to take initiatives and responsibilities, empowering them to discover and rediscover and use their own knowledge, and to manage the available resources efficiently and effectively.

The network of Non-Formal Education (NFE) is the most appropriate platform where this initiative can be implemented successfully. This manual therefore attempts to make the farmers help themselves in making the right decisions in terms of choosing the right enterprise, the right crop and/or animal husbandry.

Although different tools have been developed and are available with regard to making the right decisions, this manual attempts to use only simple tools and in a language that can be understood easily. However, a word of caution here is that the exercises in this manunal may not be the perfect method for decision making but would definitely serve as a guide towards choosing te right enterprise. More importantly, this manual is expected to be revised and finalized only after being tested with the NFE Instructors and NFE learners in the designated pilot NFE villages.

This manual titled "Farm Level Decision Making on Choosing the Right Enterprise -A guide to NFE Instructors and Learners" is a joint output of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture, financially supported by UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust for Education for Sustainable Development.

Contents
Section 1 Situational Analysis
Section 2 Problem Matrix
Section 3 Opportunity Matrix
Section 4 Final Identification and Selection of Enterprise
Section 5 Cropping Calendar
Section 6 Action Plan

Scope of the Manual
This maunal is expected to provide step-by-step guide to the farmers in facilitating them in choosing the right RNR enterprise for the enhancement of their livelihood.

Farmers are expected to have chosen one or more RNR enterprises after having gone through the excercises in the manual. Action plans for the implementation of the chosen enterprises detailing activitie, budget estimates, labour, cash and other resources are also developed.

Specifically, this manual will guide the farmers to achieve the following objectives:
1) Critical understanding of situation of his/her area:
2) Analytical understanding of problems and opportunities for decision making on the right crop or enterprise; and
3) Efficient planning and budgeting future activities