Two years after the government requested Japan for their assistance to carry out a detailed design and rehabilitation of about three kilometres of the Taklai irrigation system in Sarpang, a grant agreement of Nu 630M was signed between the chief representative of JICA Bhutan office and Gross National Happiness Commission secretary yesterday. With the signing of the grant agreement, the country’s largest irrigation scheme in the country’s highest rice production area would be rehabilitated. Taklai irrigation scheme in Chuzergang and Serzhong gewogs of Gelephu was constructed in the late 1980s to provide irrigation water to the rice bowl of the south-central part of the country. But harnessing the full potential of rice productivity from the area was not possible to date as floods damaged the irrigation intake and the canal every monsoon. Officials from agriculture ministry said lots of time and resources had been spent in maintaining the irrigation channel but despite several efforts, maintaining it failed both financially and technically. The fragile ecology, source location and river changing course every monsoon posed challenges. The government, therefore, requested Japanese government for assistance during the sixth bilateral annual consultation in 2011. Agriculture department’s officiating director general, Ganesh Chhetri, said Chuzergang is a big area with close to 3,000 acres of very good paddy land, but harnessing 100 percent paddy production was not possible because of the lack of water. He said that signing this support from JICA would not only provide financial and technical solution to the problem, but also contribute in successful commercialisation of the rice program, as people could adopt double cropping of rice. The GNHC secretary, Karma Tshiteem, said Taklai is the highest rice production area in the country but unfortunately due to irrigation problem, the resource could not be fully tapped. “After rehabilitation of the irrigation canal through this grant, Bhutan is expected to reach the cereal self-sufficiency level,” he said. The chief representative of JICA Bhutan office, Yumiko Asakuma said agriculture is a very important sector for JICA to cooperate in Bhutan and this is the first support of Japan for irrigation purpose. Citing the example of late Dasho Nishoka, she said Japan’s main criteria for cooperation in Bhutan has been agriculture since 1964. “The gap between urban and rural areas seem to be widening in the country and to bridge the gap, rural area is given more focus by trying to improve the productivity of agriculture and infrastructure development,” she said. “This irrigation rehabilitation grant is to achieve gross national happiness in rural areas.” Chuzergang and Serzhong produce 3,000 metric tonnes of rice annually.