‘’To see things in the seed, that is genius’’ – Lao Tzu.

In Ladakh due to its cold arid region vegetation was very less, and people didn’t have much idea about cultivation. LNP took upon the responsibility of bringing the  practice of vegetable cultivation. It all started in the year 1983, first, few progressive farmers were selected, given the training on how to tilt land, how to make beds for seedlings and how much of manure to put in – everything was taught.

And then they were provided with variety of seeds (free of cost) like Carrot, Lettuce, Chinese cabbage, Tamyung (a variety of radish), Radish, Spinach Turnip etc. and remember it was the starting point.

Over the years LNP has kept its tradition of distributing seeds in whole region of Ladakh, but yes, we have limited the area of distribution. In March, our team visited few villages – Kharu, Sakti, Egoo and Martselang and distributed peas.

Abhi Palmo said “LNP used to come in the early days bring the joy to our land- the seeds, we used to have small gatherings then a small celebration with Chang (local wine), then we gave them Khataks (traditional scarf) and then they will distribute seeds according to land holdings, sometimes they used to bring other farmers for seed exchange – mainly crops, barley and wheat. And later on, they will come and enquire about the production and give us advice on earning an income through vegetable cultivation.”

Padma Angmo Martselang, March 2021.