The adversaries of Climate Change, besides the availability of easier and alternative avenues such as tourism and defence, had led to the neglect of agriculture and horticulture sectors in Ladakh, over the time. However, ever since the formation of union territory, the Ladakh administration has fought back the difficulties and revived the lost hopes of Ladakhis, with a major push to boost agriculture and horticulture sectors, pursuing the revival of the primary sector.
This revival is fuelled by modern mechanisms and tools and egged on by various subsidy schemes. Overcoming the scarcity of water sources, the administration has introduced micro irrigation of drip and sprinkle systems, riding strong on the back of the financial support of Special Development Package to Ladakh given by the Centre since 2021-22.
A large number of Poly Greenhouses and Vermi-Compost Units have been established and subsidies provided to the farmers for purchasing Horticulture Machinery. Large area has been brought under the Micro Irrigation programme. Increased fund outlay in Animal Husbandry along with capacity building initiatives are helping farmers and nomads of Changthang to increase the animal produce be it wool, pashmina or milk. The upcoming 2000 ltr per hour Milk Pasteurisation Plant will further strengthen the primary sector to provide livelihood to farmers.
Some of the major achievements of Ladakh administration in this endeavour include:
- Establishment of 550 Polycarbonate Greenhouses and 617 Vermi Compost units
- 1590 kanals (198.75 acres) of additional land brought under micro irrigation system
- Kulum village, abandoned in 2010 due to scarcity of water, has been rehabilitated after the introduction of the micro-irrigation system.
- 5000 hectares of land brought under organic certification under Mission Organic Development Initiative Ladakh (MODI)
- 5 kanals ( 1175.69 acres) of land brought under plantation under various schemes during 2019-2022
- 2000 litres per hour capacity Milk Pasteurization Plant at Agling is ready for trial run
- 80 Dairy Cooperative societies have been registered after UT-Formation
- Ladakh milk to be marketed under brand name “OMA”
- 1000 MT capacity of cold storage established at Leh
- Pashmina, Seabuckthorn and Apricot – Entire value chain development under ODOP has been started
- 5 tonne/day capacity of Apricot and other horticulture product processing unit established at Nimu Leh
- Corpus fund of Rs 3 crores created for Changthang Pashmina Cooperative Society for procuring pashmina from producers directly.
