Farmers in the Himalayan region of Ladakh are facing a water crisis. The desert area relies heavily on glacial meltwater, but the ice masses are shrinking. A local initiative is combining technology with an age-old tradition to combat the problem.
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00:0090% of irrigation in this Himalayan region relies on glacial waters.
00:06But the melting of ice masses, resulting in water scarcity, is also threatening farming.
00:12But a local initiative is combining an age-old traditional method with new technology to
00:16combat this problem.
00:18Finally, it's their turn.
00:22Sonam Pamber and his wife now have about an hour to divert the flowing water onto their
00:27field.
00:28They're growing peas.
00:31Coaxing something out of the soil here is becoming harder with each passing year.
00:39We've been farming for the past 70 years, but now it's becoming very difficult.
00:45It used to be very good.
00:46The water was good.
00:47There was snow.
00:49And the weather was good.
00:50We had timely harvests.
00:58Now the limited water available has to be shared equally with the other residents of
01:02Tarhit.
01:05The village is located in the Ladakh region in India's far north.
01:10The cold desert area covers more than 9 million hectares.
01:14It's 4,000 metres above sea level and home to a little more than 200,000 people.
01:20Most of them live from farming.
01:23For thousands of years, glacier water was used to irrigate the fields.
01:28But with temperatures rising due to human-induced climate change, the glaciers are shrinking.
01:34Life for the farmers is tough.
01:38It will become very difficult to farm here in the next few years because of water scarcity.
01:43This year, the weather is bad.
01:45And the water never comes on time either.
01:51Today a group of engineers has come to check things out.
01:54They're from a local NGO called Sekmon that aims to help people in Ladakh build a sustainable future.
02:01To ensure the small mountain stream from the village has enough water in summer, the engineers
02:05have created an ice mound, shaped like a stupa, a traditional Buddhist shrine.
02:12A small artificial glacier, it stores the little water that flows down from the mountains
02:17during winter for use in the summer months.
02:23Farming is done only in summer.
02:25That's when the water is needed.
02:27The winter water is wasted.
02:29It flows into the Indus river and then into Pakistan and to the ocean.
02:33In order to save that water, we made an artificial glacier.
02:39The stupas are based on a wooden frame.
02:42In winter, underground pipes feed the limited water from the mountain to the right place.
02:47Due to the difference in pressure, the water shoots upwards.
02:51The winter air is minus 20 degrees Celsius, so the water freezes as it falls, forming a cone.
03:00A few hundred kilometres further on is the village of Liktse.
03:04Here too people are struggling.
03:06The area gets just 50 millimetres of rain in summer.
03:10But some things have changed.
03:13Today Sklazwang Yangchen is making soup with dried spinach leaves.
03:18She and her husband grew the spinach themselves.
03:20In the past, they only had potatoes.
03:26We grow brinjal, chilli, spinach and peppers and dry them for the winter.
03:33Unlike in the past, they now mulch their fields by leaving plant waste on the beds.
03:38The soil can then better absorb what little rainwater there is and it no longer evaporates immediately.
03:45They learnt this from Jigmeet Yangchen.
03:48She is a scientist at an agricultural research institute based in the city of Leh.
03:53She is helping people here adapt to the changing climate.
04:03We are trying to introduce farmers to new technologies.
04:11And when you meet the farmers face to face, you can see that they have started changing
04:14how they do things.
04:17In the nearby village of Kesar, she is trying to help local women create a sustainable livelihood
04:22for themselves, while also adapting to the changing conditions.
04:27So she arranged for greenhouses to be built.
04:30One is now used by up to 16 families.
04:36Solar panels provide the necessary power.
04:39It's all financed by a state subsidy programme.
04:44We grow our vegetables here collectively, so all our vegetable needs are easily covered.
04:50That means we don't need to buy produce from the market, which is very far away.
04:56The women learnt their agricultural know-how in workshops.
05:00Jigmeet Yangchen initially used public funds to finance the seeds for new crops.
05:06Today, everything grows here.
05:10At an altitude of 5000 metres, we grow mushrooms, strawberries, watermelon and tomatoes.
05:18We were able to grow mushrooms when it was minus 17 degrees Celsius outside.
05:24No one can say today that nothing grows here.
05:30And it's been made possible by the introduction of technology.
05:35The change in climate poses a huge challenge for the people of Ladakh.
05:40They will only be able to stay here if they can grow enough food to live in their homeland,
05:45high up in the cold mountains of the Himalayas.