ABSTRACT
Bhutan’s mountainous terrain presents a major obstacle for marketing agricultural products. Furthermore, transportation facilities are limited in number and constrained by high costs due to low passenger and freight volumes. For example, it takes almost three days for fresh chillies (which command higher prices at the start of season) to cover a distance of little over 400km from Trashiyangtse to Thimphu.The Poverty Assessment and Analysis Study of 2000 showed that, out of all 201 geogs (sub-district blocks), 33 per cent are not at all connected to feeder roads and another 33 per cent are only partly connected to feeder roads (Planning Commission, 2000).
