Ladakh region is a high altitude cold arid desert with special agro-climatic features. The region is one of the driest and coldest inhabited places on the earth. Due to harsh climatic features, short growing season is unable to offer sufficient food particularly vegetables. To supplement, fresh vegetables have to be imported by truck in summer or flown in by air during winter. The unavailability and high cost means that local people rarely eat fresh vegetables during the winter spell of the year, but instead rely on dried leafy vegetables and only stored root crops and cabbages. Specialized agricultural practices need to be developed and demonstrated for food and nutritional security of the inhabitants of the region. Protected cultivation is a well defined sustainable technology for off season food production and thereby an important component in attaining nutritional security. It offers scope for the cultivation of plants under adverse conditions. Various naturally ventilated zero energy polyhouses have been tried and tested for the region. Despite the sub-zero temperatures, the cloudless skies in Ladakh guaranty over 300 sunny days per year which is the highest in the world. Therefore, there is plenty of sunshine for crops to grow even in winter, provided that they can be prevented from freezing. Various agencies are engaged in the research and development of protected cultivation of vegetables particularly during freezing winters to augment fresh food supply to the inhabitants. The present circumstances and priorities in the region need to be expanded for furthering the technologies to achieve self sufficiency.
The study was conducted to evaluate the impact assessment of adoption of weather prediction using traditional knowledge and IMD based HMAARI Agro Advisory Services to understand the utilization efficiency of natural resources under cold arid region of Ladakh and to identify socio-economic status of agriculture farmers, their source of information, perception of farmers and their knowledge response carried out at High Mountain Arid Agriculture Research Institute, SKUAST (K), Leh-Ladakh. Total 100 farmers from AgroMet registered 3 villages of Leh region were randomly selected using multistage sampling technique. Socio-economic characteristics of respondents revealed that although before using advisory services, majority of the farming community were using traditional knowledge system to predict precipitation / temperature forecasting to interpret weather conditions. With the introduce of advisory services, it was recorded that old-aged farmers started using advisory services to the tune of 42 per cent. While more than 50 per cent of selected farmers (middle-aged non-registered under Agro-Met advisory services) utilized traditional prediction even under the changing climate. Education and land holding size were the most important factors influenced adoption culture of weather based Agro Advisory Services in the region. It was interesting that the old-aged people/farmers are the major source of information for traditional knowledge, have integrated and adopted the advisory services for weather prediction. As this advisory service scheme provided comprehensive information for agricultural operations. Majority (80%) selected farmers reported their satisfaction with present system of Agromet Advisory Bulletins, being issued biweekly. Whereas, the non-registered farmers of vulnerable villages in Ladakh region showed less knowledge about advisory service and its weather interpreted perdition.
Livestock rearing is one of the major occupations of Chanthang region India and is making significant contribution to the Ladakh’s socioeconomic development.Important role of alfalfa in development of animal husbandry is based on high potential for production of biomass. The study was conducted in eastern Ladakh (India) during 2015-19, due to deficit and scarcity of fodder crops in the region. First part of the study deals with the agronomic and management techniques adopted for cultivation of alfalfa. Second part deals with the adoption and knowledge level of farmers, which was calculated using a questionnaire. Randomly ten villages were selected from eastern Ladakh, in each village, 10 respondents were randomly selected. The study aimed to assess the adoption and knowledge level of alfalfa growers in alfalfa production. Information was obtained with the help of questionnairemethod. The data were analyzed, tabulated and the results were drawn with the help of descriptive statistical methods. The finding of the study revealed that the overall level of Adoption and knowledge of alfalfa production technology was medium. Majority of the farmers (67%) had medium level of knowledge and adoption (60%) of scientific alfalfa cultivation practices. More number of large farmers had high level of knowledge and adoption as compared to medium and small farmers. More awareness programmes should be organized to increase level of knowledge and adoption of cultivation practices to sustain alfalfa production in eastern Ladakh.
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