DRDO developing agricultural technologies for locals and army in high altitude areas of Eastern Ladakh

NEW DELHI: Close to the sites of the ongoing confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh, the Defence Research and Development Organisation has been researching and developing agricultural technologies for crop cultivation in the cold temperatures and high altitude areas in the region that have largely been adopted by border villages. The DRDO has also been helping the army, deployed in forward locations where accessibility is restricted, in using crop cultivation techniques suited for that environment to ensure a regular supply of fresh food.
The Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), a DRDO lab based in Leh, has been contributing to the agro-animal development of the Ladakh region by providing training programs on the cultivation techniques and technologies that it has developed for locals at places such as Shyok, Darbuk, Tangtse and Demchok. The institute has been mandated to boost the local availability of fresh food for troops deployed in the Ladakh sector by local farmers by developing technologies through research and development programmes. The border villages, where the DIHAR has been carrying out outreach programmes, are located close to key military locations along the Line of Actual Control with China. This ensures that what is produced by farmers at these villages can easily reach troops. For instance, the villages, Shyok and Darbuk, are the main areas located on a 255-km road to Daulet Beg Oldie, which is 20 km south of the strategic Karakoram pass (that divides Ladakh from China’s Xinjiang province) and the location of an advanced landing ground. The areas are also located to the site of the over month-long confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley, Hot Springs and Pangong Tso.

Villagers from Shyok are trained on different cultivation techniques at DIHAR’s branch in the Siachen sector, located north of the village. Greenhouse technologies developed by DIHAR have also been set up at Shyok. They were developed, because the fresh vegetables could not be grown in the open during winters in the region when temperatures dipped to -25 degrees Celsius. The lab developed the trench greenhouse for this purpose, which can be developed by locally available resources. “The technology has also been adopted by the defence forces, which over the last three years have established about 200 trench greenhouses at different locations along the border,” an official said on the condition of anonymity.

The institute has installed greenhouses for vegetable production throughout the year at remote army posts, which are not easily accessible by vehicles and therefore regular supply of fresh vegetables is affected. It has also been conducting regular training for army personnel on agro-practises for these greenhouses.

The DIHAR has developed the polyench greenhouse technology, which has been adopted by the State Agriculture Department, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), that provides 50 percent subsidy to farmers for adopting the technology. It has also developed an improved passive solar greenhouse named ‘Ladakh Greenhouse’ wherein the night temperature remains 8-12°C warmer as compared to traditional passive greenhouses. “For the three consecutive years DIHAR has demonstrated feasibility of growing tomato, cabbage, cauliflower and knol-khol even under sub zero conditions, which otherwise is not possible in conventional greenhouses. The technology has formally been transferred to UT Ladakh in 2019 for large scale adoption among farmers,” an official said, adding that the DIHAR has also submitted a report to the Union Territory of Ladakh on greenhouse technologies.

DIHAR has also developed a net-zero energy based potato storage technology, an underground structure, to cater to the army’s requirement of fresh potato supplies during the winters in remote corners of Ladakh. Officials said that with the help of this technology the army can meet their demands of the vegetable from local farmers. Earlier, there was not any cost effective storage technology for potatoes that can be applied in Ladakh. Potatoes have to be air transported from Chandigarh during winters and sometimes during summers to cater to the army’s demand.

The DIHAR has managed to grow 101 different types of vegetables at its research station. Farmers in Ladakh have adopted technologies to grow 23 types of these vegetables and supply them to the army through the farmer’s cooperative society. Local farmers, presently, are able to meet 48 percent of the army’s fresh food requirement.

As water is a scarce resource in Ladakh, the institute has also done extensive studies on black plastic mulching (a protective covering spread on the ground to reduce evaporation and maintain even soil temperature), which has resulted in a two-fold increase in crops such as tomatoes and capsicum. Farmers in Ladakh are now extensively using this technique. The DIHAR has also introduced watermelon into the fields of local farmers. Last year, local farmers supplied 3.5 metric tons of the fruit to the army. The institute has also created a high-altitude survival garden to impart training to army and paramilitary forces about survival and emergency food for use during patrolling and mountain warfare.