Growing vegetable crops in covered low tunnels, trenches and unique greenhouses that protect their plants from the hostile elements, women farmers of Changthang, Ladakh take up modern farming to reap huge dividends.
When the bone-chilling wind barrels down the snow-clad mountains into the Ladakh valley, it makes a ferocious howl, sounding even more otherworldly for Dechan Chogdol, but can’t beat her spirit, thanks to modern farming techniques.
Despite the wind and noise, she is tending her vegetable plants growing inside rows of polyurethane-wrapped low-lying tunnels.
The icy-cold gusts and the sun blazing through thin mountain air can burn her plants to a crisp.
But she needn’t worry.
For all its picture-postcard prettiness, nature challenges all forms of life at every step in the Ladakhi village of Nyoma. Home to the 35-year-old Dechan, the village is perched at 13,710 feet (4,180 metre) above sea level in Changthang, a remote nook of southern Ladakh.
Living in this wind-swept, semi-arid land is tough. Farming is “impossible” but for a window of a few summer months.
But winds of change are sweeping through Nyoma, one of the highest villages in the world.
The landscape is now dotted with an array of agricultural tunnels, trenches and greenhouses where farmers like Dechan grow a variety of vegetables.
Until a few years ago, Nyoma’s villagers could only grow a few arid-region crops like barley and turnip. But modern agricultural methods are changing the way they farm.
The wind doesn’t bother Dechan anymore as she goes about tending her cucumber vines growing on trellises.
A little out of the way, in an arched, cavernous greenhouse wrapped with a lightweight but robust polyurethane sheet, vines laden with hundreds of cucumbers create an arbour. Safe from the elements conspiring outside on Dechan’s ancestral land.
It’s like growing potatoes on Mars.
Think of the character played by Matt Damon in the 2015 Hollywood space odyssey The Martian who does just that.
Out in the open, nothing grows in Changthang. That’s a common belief and refrain and it pinched Dr Jigmet Yangchan a lot.
The programme coordinator and head of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, a unit of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K), walked out of a meeting when she heard people utter the spiritless phrase.
“I and other officials devised a plan for agricultural reforms here,” she said. An awareness campaign about modern farming was launched for the region’s people, most of whom lead a nomadic life. “Motivating them was a challenge. But we succeeded.”
Their venture was inspired by scientist Maheshwar Kanwar’s research on cultivating cucumbers in the area. Jigmet and her team followed the lead and were able to grow more vegetables like tomato, aubergine, and mushrooms.
Changthang’s farming success is built around the Ladakhi-style greenhouses, which are structurally different from those in the plains. And design-wise too.
These have a European barn-style design, enclosed on three sides like a rain shelter or bus-stop with double-layered clay brick walls. The brick layers are chinked with straw for better insulation. The back wall is long and high, while those on the sides taper off to form an irregular curve. An awning-like roof covers the back wall, supported by willow and poplar rafters. These in turn support a polyurethane sheet.
The greenhouses face the sun to ensure maximum heat retention. These sturdy structures are easy to build and the use of locally sourced material keeps the costs down to a minimum. Plus, they blend with the landscape.
For ages the mainstay of these pastoral mountain people has been rearing sheep, goat and yak. The same is true today.
The animals gave them milk, cheese, meat, wool and felt. They traded cheese, wool and felt to buy grains, salt, tea, sugar and other essentials.
Farming was a side hustle mostly for women, which is why so many women took to Jigmet’s idea of growing veggies in greenhouses, covered low tunnels and trenches.
Records available with Nyoma’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra show about 500 farmers in the area and around 2,200 in the Changthang region are engaged in modern farming.
“Until a few years ago, I only grew barley and occasionally turnips on this patch of land. But thanks to Krishi Vigyan Kendra, I’m able to grow a cash crop now,” said Tsering Angmo, a 55-year-old woman. Her ruddy cheeks beamed as she showed her mushroom patch in a tunnel.
In Muth, a model village known for its cucumber cultivation, Sona Chungdol specialises in the long, green-skinned fruit with watery flesh.
“Besides cucumbers, I grow around six varieties of tomatoes and a type of brinjal,” she said.
And her greenhouses and trenches are a sight to behold.
Sona said her life has changed. She is no longer whiling away time doing mundane household chores or helping the men tend livestock.
“Modern farming has given me financial independence. I can earn in lakhs now,” she said.
She gets pre-orders for fresh cucumber, tomato and other greens from military units stationed in the region, earning around Rs 2 lakh a year.
As the glorious Ladakhi sun shines on their magical homeland, Changthang’s women farmers are gradually basking in success.
They show their green thumb to the howling wind.
Read about Dr Jigmet Yangchan, who played an important role in introducing modern farming methods to the local women, in this Her Life story.
The lead image shows women growing cucumber in a greenhouse in Changthang, one of the highest and coldest places in Ladakh (Photo by Nasir Yousufi)
Nasir Yousufi is a journalist based in Srinagar.
