Excelsior Correspondent
LEH, July 17: There is no substitute for hard work and no short cuts for success. This has been proved by Yangchan Dolma, a wife, a mother and much more; an innovative farmwoman. Beating her age, taking the challenges of the cold arid region, where temperature dips to as low as -35 degrees Celsius and where farming cannot be done for more than five to six months; Mrs Dolma has another story to tell.
Vegetable production is a major source of livelihood for people in this cold arid region. Yangchan Dolma is a 60 years old woman from village Saboo in Block Leh of District Leh in the Union Territory of Ladakh. Not much years ago, agriculture for her was subsistence in nature and the crops were grown by her with traditional and crude methods. This did not fetch her good produce. It was only when she came in contact with Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK)-Leh; things started taking a U turn for her. A series of her visits to KVK-Leh enabled her to learn new technologies related to protected cultivation, composting and vermi composting, organic methods of insect pest and disease control, water harvesting, food processing and value addition and other aspects of raising healthy crops. This was also followed by the experts from KVK-Leh paying frequent visits to her farm.
In her endeavour, she also gets full support from her husband Rinchen Tundup who retired as a class one officer from the State Planning Department. The couple owns about 2 hectares of land of which 0.5 ha is uncultivable. She grows different vegetables in the growing season as well as off season. For most of the vegetables, she produces own seeds, which are also sold in the local market.
Mrs Dolma by successfully integrating all the local resources from her farm, has proved that agriculture is not a lost battle. For every one rupee invested by her she is getting back more than four rupees. Her vegetable farm also has a compost unit, a farm pond, solar drier and green houses.
Now, Mrs Dolma has been awarded prestigious ‘Jagjivan Ram Abhinav Kisan Puruskar’ of ICAR during the 92nd raising day of ICAR held on July 16, 2020. This award carries a certificate and a cash prize of rupees 50,000. Earlier, she bagged the LM Patel Memorial award by ASPEE Foundation, which carries an appreciation certificate as well as a cash prize of rupees 25,000.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
