Bhutanese farmers at work in their rice fields in the Wangdiphodrang Valley, some 100 kilometres and three mountain ranges east of Thimphu. - - Forestry and Agriculture Development. Bhutan, a small landlocked mountainous Himalayan Asian country between China and India, was almost closed to the outside world until about ten years ago. Its 1.2 million inhabitants are mostly subsistence farmers and poor rural folk who live mainly off the products of the vast forests. Thimphu, the capital, has only 20 000 inhabitants, yet Bhutan is rich in natural resources and could become a prosperous nation. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is helping the Kingdom to develop its resources and, in 1985, had over 20 projects there providing aid and training to farmers and livestock owners, establishing modern forest industries, training extension workers, improving food security and commercial food processing and restocking the many inland lakes and rivers with hardier fish species.