The Market Access and Growth Intensification Project will operate in the six dzongkhags (districts) of the eastern region, where some 30 per cent of the population of the country lives. The overall goal of the project is to reduce poverty and improve food security and the standards of living of poor rural households in six eastern districts of Bhutan. The project will focus on: improving the productivity of subsistence-based farming systems in communities with no road access, and intensifying the production of cash crops and dairy products, while enhancing smallholder access to markets in communities with road access. The project is fully aligned with Bhutan’s sector policy for renewable natural resources and the objectives outlined in its Tenth Five-Year Plan (2008-2013).