Leh: Many people in Ladakh are getting fresh vegetables in sub-zero temperature and even on cheaper price due to solar greenhouses established across the Union Territory.
Greenhouse, – allows farmers to grow a variety of vegetables throughout the winter season as earlier during the winters the farmers were not able to practice agriculture activities due climatic challenges. In albescence agriculture, the vegetables were sold on exorbitant price.
The greenhouse was developed by Defense Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR).
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A report quoting the chief agriculture officer of Ladakh, Shakeel Ahmad, informed that in the last two years over 800 farmers have installed solar power houses in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
“Even in the bitterest cold between November and February, the farmers now have fresh vegetables to eat and sell,” the report said.
“We are receiving an immense response from the farmers. The department bears the cost of polycarbonate sheets, doors, and windows. And, the government is installing these solar power houses at a subsidy of 70 per cent,” Shakeel Ahmad said.
By the end of next year, we have set up a target of installing 1,000 more solar greenhouses, he added.
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According to him, these solar greenhouses help the local communities get fresh vegetables through the year and reduce the expenditure they now face buying vegetables coming in from other places.
Scientists at the Defense Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR) began work on a solar greenhouse in 2014, hoping to develop a version that would be more efficient than the traditional ones that froze up in the winters. DIHAR is a defence laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) located in Leh city of Ladakh.
“After several years, we managed to develop solar greenhouses. The maximum temperature recorded in these is above 40 degree Celcius in the summers and the lowest temperature recorded in peak winter months amid extreme cold conditions is 5-10 degrees Celsius. This is enough to grow vegetables in winter months,” Tsering Stobdan, the lead scientist in the initiative, said.
The cropping season in Ladakh is severely restricted but between November 2021 and April 2022, farmers here have cultivated cabbage, spinach, cauliflower and coriander.
He further explained how while regular greenhouses became untenable when the temperature dropped below zero outside, solar greenhouses did not need to be heated, but they retained the heat derived from the sunlight during daylight hours and kept warm. Once DIHAR developed the greenhouse, in 2018, it transferred the technology to the agriculture department of Ladakh. Now the Agriculture Department Ladakh is providing these solar greenhouses to farmers at subsidised rates.
