{"id":20017469,"date":"2016-02-03T07:16:45","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T01:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=17469"},"modified":"2021-01-04T17:20:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T11:50:29","slug":"bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

A deadly virus<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more than three decades, mandarin (orange) orchards in Bhutan have provided farmers and orange exporters with more than just a livelihood option. In 2014, exports of the fruit brought more than USD 10 million<\/a> to Bhutan. Unfortunately, this prosperity is now under threat. Over the last few years, Bhutan has joined a set of countries plagued by a virus called \u2018citrus greening\u2019, or Huanglongbing. The virus<\/a>, travelling on the insects that feed off citrus plants, clogs the nutrition system of the plant, making the trees produce bitter, green fruit. Once infected, it is impossible to save the trees and they must be destroyed.<\/p>\n

\"Mandarin<\/a><\/p>\n

Metric tonnes of mandarins exported by Bhutan per year [data from: http:\/\/www.bhutaniea.org\/files\/ExportRecords2016.pdf<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Dorji, 56, who lives in a remote village in Bhutan\u2019s southern district of Dagana, recalled how the 500 plants in his orange orchard used to provide enough income to take care of his family of six. In 2012, though, his entire orchard, as well as those of his neighbours, was burnt down due to the infection of citrus greening.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In citrus greening disease the fruit remain green and bitter [image by USDA]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cI was not sad as we were [compensated by being given land for] a new orchard plantation,\u201d Dorji told thethirdpole.net<\/a>. Unfortunately for Dorji, though, the new plants began to fail a year after they started to bear fruit. Like Dorji, hundreds of orange growers of Dagana, Tsirang, Sarpang, Samtse, Samdrupjongkhar, Zhemgang and PemaGatshel districts are faced with similar problems. Last December, local leaders of Nanglam village in Bhutan\u2019s southwestern district of SamdrupJongkhar said that they might not be able to meet their annual performance agreement<\/a> to produce 600 metric tonnes of oranges. This was because most trees were either not bearing fruit or the fruits were falling off the trees before ripening.<\/p>\n

Climate change also strikes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thinley Zangpo, an agriculture extension officer in Panbang<\/a>, where orange growing farmers suffered major losses last year, said, \u201cOther factors, such as erratic rainfall due to climate change, are also affecting flowering and fruition of orange groves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Passang Tsheirng, district agriculture officer of Dagana, added, \u201cSince last few year, we have been witnessing drastic changes in rainfall patterns due to which orange trees don\u2019t get the required watering.\u201d These fluctuations affect soil moisture, hampering the growth of the fruits. Earlier, he said, rainfall was timely and people did not need to water orange plants.  However, people do not understand that the change in rainfall pattern could hamper the growth of their orange produce, thus they do not feel the necessity to water their plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have started encouraging people to water their plants to meet the water requirement of the plants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

New crops<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a consequence, the farmers are trying to diversify their products. Dorji has started cardamom plantation on two acres of his land, like many other farmers of Dagana and Tsirang. \u201cI believe cardamom is likely to replace oranges in future,\u201d said Dorji. Cardamom requires less land than oranges, and could also fetch a higher price. In Zhemgang district, some farmers have already started growing avocados as a response to low orange production. Similar problems were also reported from other southern districts of Tsirang, Samtse and Sarpang.<\/p>\n

\"cardamom<\/a><\/p>\n

Metric tonnes of cardamom exported by Bhutan to Bangladesh per year [data from: http:\/\/www.bhutaniea.org\/files\/ExportRecords2016.pdf<\/a>]<\/p>\n

District agriculture officials told thethirdpole.net<\/a> that farmers were increasingly growing alternative crops such as kiwi fruit, mangoes, avocados and cardamom in place. The agricultural ministry is trying to encourage farmers to cut down dried citrus trees and plant new ones to avoid spreading of citrus greening. They fear that, \u201cIf farmers choose to abandon citrus (orange) over other plant, they would face difficulties when it comes to marketing. Unlike oranges, other fruits face a high degree of market competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mandarin oranges, Bhutan\u2019s biggest food export, are being threatened by the presence of a new virus and the effects of climate change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2194,"featured_media":20017472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[761,763],"tags":[50029567,519,607],"hashtags":[],"country":[20027489],"class_list":["post-20017469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","category-food","tag-agroforestry","tag-climate-impacts","tag-water-scarcity","country-bhutan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mandarin oranges, Bhutan\u2019s biggest food export, are being threatened by the presence of a new virus and the effects of climate change\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mandarin oranges, Bhutan\u2019s biggest food export, are being threatened by the presence of a new virus and the effects of climate change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-03T01:46:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-04T11:50:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1020\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Omair Ahmad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Omair Ahmad\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9a848773a1a37281aebe783ad3fcd5b2\"},\"headline\":\"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-03T01:46:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-04T11:50:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/\"},\"wordCount\":661,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Agroforestry\",\"Climate impacts\",\"Water scarcity\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Climate\",\"Food\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/\",\"name\":\"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change | Dialogue Earth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-03T01:46:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-04T11:50:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"Mandarin oranges, Bhutan\u2019s biggest food export, are being threatened by the presence of a new virus and the effects of climate change\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg\",\"width\":1020,\"height\":765,\"caption\":\"Citrus trees [image by Nadiatalent]\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Dialogue Earth\",\"description\":\"Global climate and environment news\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"width\":256,\"height\":256,\"caption\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_\",\"\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9a848773a1a37281aebe783ad3fcd5b2\",\"name\":\"Omair Ahmad\",\"description\":\"Omair Ahmad is South Asia editor of thethirdpole.net.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/omairahmad\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/dawa-gelmo\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change | Dialogue Earth","description":"Mandarin oranges, Bhutan\u2019s biggest food export, are being threatened by the presence of a new virus and the effects of climate change","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change","og_description":"Mandarin oranges, Bhutan\u2019s biggest food export, are being threatened by the presence of a new virus and the effects of climate change","og_url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/","og_site_name":"Dialogue Earth","article_published_time":"2016-02-03T01:46:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-01-04T11:50:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1020,"height":765,"url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Omair Ahmad","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/"},"author":{"name":"Omair Ahmad","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9a848773a1a37281aebe783ad3fcd5b2"},"headline":"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change","datePublished":"2016-02-03T01:46:45+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-04T11:50:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/"},"wordCount":661,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg","keywords":["Agroforestry","Climate impacts","Water scarcity"],"articleSection":["Climate","Food"],"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/","name":"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change | Dialogue Earth","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg","datePublished":"2016-02-03T01:46:45+00:00","dateModified":"2021-01-04T11:50:29+00:00","description":"Mandarin oranges, Bhutan\u2019s biggest food export, are being threatened by the presence of a new virus and the effects of climate change","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Citrus-trees-by-image-by-Nadiatalent.jpg","width":1020,"height":765,"caption":"Citrus trees [image by Nadiatalent]"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/bhutans-oranges-threatened-by-disease-and-climate-change\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bhutan\u2019s oranges threatened by disease and climate change"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","name":"Dialogue Earth","description":"Global climate and environment news","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization","name":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","width":256,"height":256,"caption":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_","","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/9a848773a1a37281aebe783ad3fcd5b2","name":"Omair Ahmad","description":"Omair Ahmad is South Asia editor of thethirdpole.net.","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/omairahmad\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/dawa-gelmo\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20017469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20017469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20017469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20017472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20017469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20017469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20017469"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=20017469"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=20017469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}