PART II The potato is introduced to Bhutan, arguably, on the colonial coat-tail of George Bogle

From South America to India
Potato had to travel from South America through India to Bhutan. Although at that time there were no legal barriers to the transfer of planting materials, the journey was not easy. Tubers, the conventional planting material, would have been highly perishable. If carried as seed, the plants produced would have been highly variable, requiring repeated selection to get suitable material.

Potato may have been introduced to Europe around 1570 and may have travelled from there to India in the early 17th century through Portuguese traders. Some sources claim that good crops of potato were seen in Northern India as early as 1617. In 1885, Hooker observed that in Sikkim “the potato thrives extremely well as a summer crop at 7000 feet.” A description of agriculture practices in Hooghly and Burdwan districts (West Bengal, India) for the period 1850-1910 noted a high demand for potato and widespread cultivation, replacing the traditional yam and colocasia species.

Speculations on how the tuber reached Bhutan
Documented sources on early agriculture practices in Bhutan are scant. Information can be pieced together from the biographies of important saints and other Bhutanese personalities and from European travellers to Bhutan. The narrative of George Bogle, a representative of the East India Company, who travelled through Bhutan in 1776, provides the earliest record on potato introduction. He was instructed by Lord Warren Hastings, the governor general of the Company, to plant potato at all halting places when travelling from Buxa Duar through Chhapcha to Thimphu. It is, however, quite possible that potato may have reached parts of Bhutan before Bogle’s visit, as cultivation in Northern India was reported much earlier. The feasibility of transferring planting material from Kolkatta to remote places in Bhutan and the results from plantings made during the peak rainy season are also questioned.

Bogle describes a dish gegeow, during a meal with the Shabdrung, as “well seasoned with red peppers.” Bogle also noticed the presence of Indian corn planted in patches with wheat and barley. From his report we can speculate that the introduction of Andean crops, maize and chilli, to Bhutan may have preceded the potato. Records of another Englishmen, Captain Turner, who passed through Bhutan nine years after Bogle, made reference to the potato again: “The gardener brought me a handful of lettuces, weak and bitter, and also a few cabbage leaves, equally degenerate, with a small specimen of potatoes not bigger than a boy’s marbles”.

The status of potato in Bhutan prior to 1970
No written information on the adoption and use of potato in Bhutan during the 18th and 19th centuries are available. Griffiths travelling through Bhutan in 1837/38 noted that “they are unaware of the value of potato.”

Elderly people can, however, still recollect the status of potato prior to the construction of roads. For example, Meme Rinzin, born in 1927 from Thragom (Trashigang district), claims that no potato was cultivated in the Kanglung area as late as the 1960s. Meme Rinzin however vividly remembers his experiences of carrying potato produced in Yonphula to the markets in Mela bazaar where they were bartered for salt. According to Meme Rinzin, at that time potatoes were planted without maize intercrop. He also remembers that his grandparents were already carrying potato during his childhood days (c. 1930s). Peter Steele, who spent some weeks in Bumthang in the spring of 1967, wrote about lunch: “This meal rarely varied: a pile of rice, some potato fried in butter, occasionally with spring onions.“ He also observed: “In the palace garden, a good crop of potato was being grown.”

Based on the information from these elderly informants, the following can be pieced together about the status of potato prior to the 1970s:

• The area cultivated by individual households were small.
• Potato was used for home consumption, for bartering, as gifts and sometimes also for rituals.
• The average quantities consumed were small.
• Potato was an important export item already at the beginning of the 20th century (long before road construction started).
• Cultivation was mostly concentrated at higher elevations, often associated with gompas.
• A wide range of varieties were used – variety characteristics recalled include: small tubers, large tubers, white skin, red skin, etc.
• Many Bhutanese believed that eating large quantities of potato caused problems of the lower abdomen, vomiting, constipation and diarrhoea.

From a low status tuber to the favorite ingredient for kewa datshi
Potato production started to increase at a very fast rate in the late seventies when production areas became accessible to the Indian markets. The increase in area was especially rapid from 1970 to about 1983. The quick adoption rate of market oriented potato production and the rapid changes in potato consumption are both examples of how Bhutanese farmers and consumers can respond rapidly to new opportunities and situations. The phenomenal increase from 1965-1975, with a 3-fold jump in the production area was largely possible thanks to the farmers’ own initiative as, at that time, the agriculture extension service was not yet fully established.

In the next part, we will talk about the production areas and production methods and some of the problems faced by potato producers.

Questioning the theory that G Bogle introduced potato
Mr Bogle left Calcutta in late May before the onset of the monsoon. “It was the worst time of the year to embark on a journey. By 20th May the thermometer was often above the ‘Degree of Blood Heat’, the sun almost vertical in the sky”. The party travelled by boat, palanquins, by foot and on horseback and reached the Bhutanese hills around mid-June (after 25 days travelling).

It took the party another 15 days to travel from Cooch Behar through Chhapcha.

No records are available on: source of potato seed, quality of potato seed, number of tubers planted, method of planting … Based on this narrative, it would be rather difficult for potato tubers to reach Bhutan in condition for propagation. Furthermore, based on our current experiences, we would not expect any production from crops planted in June!

Contribution by the Bhutan Potato Development Program
(Department of Agriculture)
Source: Kuenselonline