International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) project
Commercial Agriculture And Resilient Livelihoods Enhancement Program (CARLEP)
- Financing
- USD 25.5mClimate finance commitment
- Status
- Completed
- Period
- 11/12/1015 – 31/12/2025
- Scope
- Regional
About the project
The goal of the Programme is to sustainably increase smallholder producers' incomes and reduce poverty through commercialization of production by programme households while the objective is increased returns to smallholder farmers through climate resilient production of crops and livestock products in nationally organized value chains and marketing systems. The goal and objective are both in line with Bhutan's poverty strategy. Implementation modality: Blended Type of support: Crosscutting Subsector: Agriculture, Livestock Technology development/transfer: Walnut Hot callusing technology, IoT-based automated mushroom farming, Drip irrigation system. Contributes to capacity-building objectives. Use, impact and results: Project results suggest meaningful improvements in production, income, productive asset ownership and resilience, particularly for women-headed households. Compared to baseline, vegetable and dairy production increased by an average of 50.82 percent against a target of 30 percent (169 percent). This was driven by a 72.9 percent increase in annual vegetable production (from 0.87 MT per household in 2015 to 1.50 in 2025) and a 28.7 percent increase in annual dairy production (from 1,271 litre per household in 2019 to 1,636 in 2025), with the direct contribution of comprehensive production support through climate resilient technologies and practices, agri-input and service enterprises, and water-related infrastructure. Combining the production increase with extensive market linkage infrastructure and services (buyer/trader linkages), vegetable sales value increased by 188 percent from Nu 10,493 in. 2019 (adjusted for inflation) to Nu 30,196 in 2025, and dairy sales value increased by 72 percent from Nu 24,522 in 2019 (adjusted for inflation) to Nu 42,228 in 2025. As a direct result, average household income of vegetable and dairy households increased by 65.14 percent against the target of 25 percent (261 percent), rising from an inflation-adjusted baseline of Nu 100,813 (2025) to Nu 166,482 at endline (Para 58-59). Women-headed households experienced a lower but still substantial income increase of 43.67 percent. Further, productive asset ownership increased from 3.68 percent at baseline (2015) to 12.37 percent at endline Project component/outputs: Component 1: Market-led sustainable Agricultural production Output 1.1: Production resilience in agriculture increased and agriculture production diversified Output 1.2: Vegetable production increased Output 1.3: Dairy production increased Component 2: Value chain development and marketing Output 2.1: Resilient vegetable and dairy vaue chain develoiped Output 2.2: Commercial farming expanded nad new farm enterprises developed Output 2.3: Community-driven market infrastructure developed Component 3: Institutional support and policy development Output 3.1: Valuechain and marketing knowledge and communication strengthened Output 3.2: Climate resilience and value chain development lessons mainstreamed in agricultural policies and sector strategies Component 4: Programme Management
Funding
| Source | Type | Facility | Agency | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) | Climate finance | IDA | IFAD, MoAL | USD 25.5m |
Amounts are commitments, not disbursements.