Dear members of the RNR family,

Happy Losar! May the Iron Male Tiger Year give us all the strength, courage, determination and steadfastness - characteristics associated with this magnificient animal. It is a special year but will become special for each one of us only if we put in our own bit to make it special.

If you recollect, last year in my Losar message, I have challenged you to be prepared for change and to change the way we do our business. I am personally satisfied that this call has been anwered full-heartedly and we have indeed embraced change at every level - as an organisation and as an individual. As a result we have much better understanding of what we are supposed to do and the way to do it. I have read somewhere that change can only take place if we do not take 'NO' for an answer. In not taking 'NO' for an answer, I am sure some of you may not have felt comfortable but I would like to assure you that nothing is cast in stone and we can make further changes as we go along to rectify mistakes whenever we come across one. We cannot forever, live in the comfort zone - a tortoise cannot survive with sticking its neck out to look for food and shelter. But when it sticks its neck out, it does involve some risk.

This year, I would like to ask you to carry forward the changes we have introduced in our plans and programmes so that we could produce meaningful impact on the livelihood of our people, our environment and our economy. The One-Gewog-Three-Product (OGTP) approach is now well accepted at all levels including the GNHC. Unlike the past plans, this approach allows us to focus on the end and not just the means. As I have been mentioning to you whenever we meet, we should not miss the trees for the forests. Our various programmes, such as farm roads, farm mechanisation, irrigation, pest management, land management, community forestry, biodiversity conservation and park management etc. should all converge to achieve a common goal.

Towards this end, we have taken bold steps such as entering into an agreement with Mountain Hazel Nut venture to invest in large-scale hazelnut production through FDI in the east and with Samden Group to cultivate coffee in the south. We have realigned the function of the research centres to enhance their afficiency and effectiveness by making them accountable to the line departments. We have elevated the status of the CORRB to a true Council to function as a coordinating, technology screening and monitoring of adoption rates, quality control of reserach findings and publications and advisory services to the implementing departments. We have created a new department, the Department of Agriculture Marketing and Cooperatives, with the responsibility to implement the Cooperatives Act 2009 and respond to the demands of a changing agricultural industry from subsistence to commercialisation. We have revised the community forestry rules to make them more communoty friendly and have gone ahead to register more than 200 CFUs in just over a year. We have brought eco-tourism to centre stage of our tourism planning by developing various products such as mushroom festival in Thrumshingla national Park and Nomads' Festival in Wangchuck Centennial Park. We have successfully commercialised dairy, poultry and pig production in a number of areas, kept out Avian and Swine flu diseases from our borders. We have given the Centennial Farmers' Market a new look and a new meaning.  These are just some of the examples of changes we have collectively brought about in the past year.

Of course, we had our fair share of challenges. From the floods that hit the nation in May to the earthquake in September, the Ox Year had affected lives and livelihoods across the country and caused a heavy drain on our limited resources. However, under the benign guidance of our young, dynamic and compassionate Monarch, we have come thorugh these disasters as a stronger nation and as wiser people. These diasters were, in many respects, a wake-up call for us - to be better prepared and responsive to the events happening aroubnd us and under us such as climate change and tectonic movements. We must take valuable lessons from them and move forward as a more resilient and versatile nation and act decisively to put in place appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures.

Finally, I would like to plead with all of you to look ahead with optimism. We have laid the foundations for succesfully implementing our programmes and projects. We are fortunate to have so many bilateral and multilateral development partners who have come forward with resources to assist us. Dressed in our new name, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, which recognises the central role that our forests play in our culture, economy and ecology, I am confident that the Year of the Tiger will definitely be the year in which the RNR Sector will ROAR!!!

Tashi Delek!