The project is titled ?Sustainable Empowerment and Employment of Women Through Mushroom Cultivation? and it aims to bring about similar deliverables and rural development to Pemagatshel district with a mushroom training and capacity building center where any individual looking to learn and develop their capacity/knowledge can come to seek the right training or knowledge particularly to cultivate mushrooms considering the geographical landscape of Pemagatshel and the inaccessibility to capacity building services and programs such as this which is why ?Land Development? is a crucial environmental aspect of this project. The project also includes various stakeholders to make the implementation process more sustainable and inclusive not only during the time of executing the project but even after the closing stages by officially handing over the furtherment of the project to the women's group (Target beneficiaries). Likewise considering the geographical landscape of the district, it has

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been difficult to cultivate and market any other high value cash crops besides oranges creating a single market income system. The lack of infrastructure development is also another constraining factor as transportation costs are very high and many remain in poverty regardless of their age, sex or gender.
Likewise the target area (Chhokorling Gewog) has never had any sort of Capacity-building programs prior to this project considering the fact that they have the necessary natural resources and the market to do so. The land for the establishment of the mushroom enterprise shall be provided by the gewog administration and the recent inauguration of the ?Dry-port? will also be an opportunity for expanding the market map to other regions and beyond. Thus, this project is not only challenging the environmental status-quos of Pemagatshel but so too the economical barriers to sustainable development in the region.

Rural development in Bhutan has been an emerging and persistent issue as most of the wholesome development occurs in urban centers such as Thimphu, Paro and Phuentsholing due to different factors like geographical, economical and social constraints whereas most of the eastern and southern districts remain severely underdeveloped compared to those urban centers leading to even more complex issues such as lack of human resources in various fields, inaccessibility to services and provisions and especially the capacity of individuals to make a sustainable livelihood/income. Pemagatshel district has been one of the most underdeveloped districts in the country which is why this project has been initiated with various stakeholders in order to shed light and address the issues of underdevelopment in the lower regions of the district especially in terms of capacity development for lower income individuals and families like those who face gender based violence, economical and social constraints, those without land to cultivate/farm on and those that are a part of the poverty pocket in the district.

The practice of shifting cultivation, human-wildlife conflict, inaccessibility to roads, lack of infrastructure development in the lower regions of Pemagatshel, water shortages and other geographical and economical barriers have contributed to making the district one of the most poverty stricken districts in the country. Keeping in mind these factors, the production of fresh produce like vegetables and fruits are a major environmental challenge forcing Pemagatshel as a whole to depend on imports from other dzongkhags such as Mongar and Samdrup Jongkhar. In 2017, the Poverty Analysis report (PAR) conducted by the NSB showed that the poverty rate in Pemagatshel was around 13.7% but as the district of Pemagatshel still remains a region with plentiful natural resources and good quality of air, water and rich forests it does have the potential for investment and further development activities. The dzongkhag is characterized by highly dissected mountain ranges, steep slopes and narrow valleys with little flat land which is why bringing infrastructure/land development is a keyhole opportunity. The altitude/elevation is also another variable as the district is located between 1,000 meters to 3,500 meters above sea level and experiences an average rainfall of 1500mm to about 3000 mm which is why they can only grow a few varieties of high value cash crops/vegetables or fruits to make an agriculture-based income and even in doing so faces the problem of wildlife animal attacks and the practice of ?Tseri Cultivation?. Although the district grows various types of cash crops such as maize, wheat, barley, etc? The most prominent one is maize but the surplus of any other cash crop is highly marginal or non-existent. Nonetheless, wet-land agriculture is also very difficult considering the geographical features of the district as well. In a SWOT analysis conducted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the lack of institutional support, wet-land cultivation, insufficient water supply and the wholesome trade being controlled by Samdrup Jongkhar Dongkhag were the points of weaknesses that contribute to the lack of development or poverty alleviation in the district. The threat(s) mentioned in the SWOT analysis of the MOEA is the sensitive balance required between development and the available resources which this project can contribute to bring to the poverty stricken communities of lower Pemagatshel.

Thus, in order to address the issues mentioned above and further economic and geographically constraining issues contributing to the already existing poverty rate in the district this sort of community development projects are crucial to achieve a collective wider outcome that would not only benefit the targeted area(s) or group(s) but particularly lower Pemagatshel in finding new developmental investment opportunities in other sectors such as agriculture and particularly mushroom cultivation through which the target group(s) can build their capacities in order to make a sustainable livelihood first and eventually contribute to the wholesome economical development of the region.

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