[Mars 2005] (EN) : LEISA, Magazine on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture

GERES news - Articles written by GERES

Thomas Mansouri, chargé de communication au GERES

Passive solar architecture for Mountain agriculture

Food security remains the major preoccupation of mountain communities, especially in the higher altitude and more remote parts of the Hindu Kush and Himalayan ranges. More than 150 millions people live in difficult conditions due to the severe climate: winter temperatures can fall below –30°C, precipitation is low and the natural resources are limited. With such conditions, farmers rely on sheep, goats, cattle and yak as their main source of survival. Agriculture is traditionally limited on very small landholdings focused mainly on cereals.

This article presents a case study on vegetable production under greenhouse during the winter period in Ladakh. This region is located, between 2700 to 4500m above the sea level, in the Western Indian Himalayas near to the Tibetan/Chinese and Pakistan border.
Community devotes their energy during the short summer period to self subsistence agricultural activities and collection of fire wood (dung, bush) to survive during the long and harsh winter.

In the winter, snowfalls block the high passes, roads are closed and the population must rely almost entirely on its own resources for survival. The activities, even domestic are very limited due the coldness. Market price of perishable goods increases by 2 to 3 times.  Only the upper class modern families can purchase the rare fruits or vegetables on the markets and imported by plane from more fertile areas.

This is not a new situation: mountain rural communities have survived for centuries in such environment, but the living conditions of the inhabitants are degraded gradually because of the environmental pressure and the increase of population. If the needs are increasing, expectations too. Nowadays it’s more and more difficult to prevent the rural out-migration, especially of the young. The damage will be to see disappearing a whole community, with its knowledge, and its culture. Moreover, the arrival of the young people in urban areas will grow the poor and rootless.

Some NGOs works with mountain communities to help them develop innovative and adapted tools, to establish efficient processes to improve living conditions with income diversification, to promote a sustainable rural development, and to provide people with better solutions for remaining in their home area.  GERES (Renewable Energy and Environment Group), working with Indian, Chinese, Nepalese and Afghan NGOs, has focused on technologies for energy saving and incomes generating to improve living conditions in cold regions of developing countries.

GERES has pioneered passive solar architecture in Ladakh (Indian Himalayan range) since the early 80’s, because the main resource that this region has in abundance is the sunshine, especially in winter. This can be use for many applications to improve the quality of life. Potential benefits include warming houses, schools, dispensaries and handicraft centres, and developing off-season agricultural activities such as greenhouse production and poultry farming.

Since the early 80’s, one of the challenges for GERES was to develop an agricultural greenhouse model, adapted for each situation (altitude, snowing up, temperature…). This tool is designed first to provide a suitable environment for growing mainly vegetables and also fruits and flowers, even if outside conditions are against such purpose. The objective was to develop simple technologies to improve food subsistence and to increase access to winter vegetables. The first versions were designed for a maximum effectiveness. These specific models were intended for a middle class. Very effective and technically adapted, these greenhouses had certainly defaults, in particular the cost of construction and the payback period.
In early 90’s, Indian government bet on offering a very low cost greenhouse to all the ladakhi farmers. Largely spread of but not adapted to the climatic conditions of high altitudes, these greenhouses were quickly forsaken.

Appropriate technology and long term development

In 1998, a partnership with Ladakh Environment and Health Organisation (LEHO) aims at developing and diffusing a new solar greenhouse design more adapted to the economical, social and climatic conditions. This new design was experimented in collaboration with the University of the Cashmere (Shri Kashmir Agricultural Unit Station (SKAUST)) at Stakna, near to Leh.
The objective is to enable poor farmer to generated additional income , especially during the inactive winter period.

The specification of the design are
the investment capacity of the farmer (<400 €),
the market demand (to supply in Leh during winter)
economical feasibility (payback < 5 years)
technical and material constraints ( construction can be managed by local mason)
social constraints (time, land….)
This 50 m² solar greenhouse is South oriented: East, West and North walls are constructed by sun-dried bricks, insulated by straw and support a tilted roof on the north side. The greenhouse is covered by Indian manufactured U.V resistant polythene sheet. Overheating is controlled by a natural ventilation system. Due the important thermal mass, when the external temperatures drops below -20°C during the night, the vegetable do not freeze inside the greenhouse.

Under this greenhouse, farmer are able to grow
in winter:  leafy and root vegetable  (spinach, coriander, carrot…)
in spring : seedling, root and fruit vegetable
in summer: exotic vegetable
in autumn: extend the season of fruit vegetable (Tomato can be grown up to end November)

A large solar greenhouse is built in Leh, at ends of demonstration, to ensure the training of the future beneficiaries of improved solar greenhouses, and in the way to promote the diffusion of new greenhouses and to sensitize the farmers. An agricultural engineer ensures the technical and agronomic follow-up. Thus the first training schemes were born as of January 2002.

Initially it was planned to build five demonstration private greenhouses. In front of the effectiveness of the greenhouses, the news quickly spread and involved many requests (200 per years). Thus a hundred greenhouses were built with less that 30 % subsidy within 3 year. The subsidy were material contribution, such as plastic cover or wooden ventilator, that the owner can not purchase but which are required for the proper running of the greenhouse. This material was given at the end of the construction after a quality control.

Farmers were selected according to
-technical criteria (shading, water availability…), 
-agriculture experience in vegetable growing in open field  to ensure they will be able to manage the greenhouse
-social criteria (land area, other income ) to ensure the motivation of the farmer take the maximum benefit of the greenhouse and  the social impact of the project

Appropriation of the design and scaling up mechanism

This success is not with the hazard: the main contributors were marginal farmers who suggested practical improvements to adapt the innovative concept to their constraints, skills and to improve the durability of the design.  Their input was crucial to reduce the investment cost and construction requirements and ensure that the design is appropriate for the resources available in these high mountain areas. They carried out the first experiments and suggested the main improvements to guarantee the success of this initiative. Such experience proves the interest to strongly involve the local actors: masons, carpenters, farmers are full of expedients. Their contribution made it possible to select criteria of success so that a greenhouse is effective. That seems obvious, but it is a true innovation, brought by the masons themselves.

The masons and the carpenters associated with the project for a well-adapted rural development will be specifically trained to become "service providers". The goal is to create a network, and to guarantee the presence of a local specialist on a valley scale. There is a different approach.

Since the local populations adapted the tool for better use and low costs agriculture can locally diversify. High-value cash crops as fruit and vegetables (and new winter incomes) can be gradually added to the traditional seasonal cereal crop farming.

The socio-economic effects of the agricultural solar greenhouse promotion

The fast diffusion of the improved solar greenhouses during these last years leads the GERES to evaluate the impacts of its actions in Ladakh, in particular to ensure perennially of the experience.
This evaluation aims at better understanding the effects of the improved greenhouses on different levels: the family way of life and economy, some ladakhi society features and the vegetable market in Ladakh. Investigations were carried out near the families having constructed of an improved greenhouse during the program. It is the way to demonstrate the positive benefits of an improved greenhouse and to take conscience of some limitations of these benefits.
Moreover, that will make it possible to better consider the possibilities to replicate this program in other areas of the Himalayas (Mustang, Tibet...).

The study concerns 3 areas: Leh and closest villages (Central Ladakh), downstream from Leh (Sham, first villages 30km far from the city) near Indus river and Chang Tang (high valleys in remote areas, near China border).
The study showed five categories of greenhouses owners, classified according to their activity, standards of living, agricultural land area, the greenhouse utilisation…:
small farmers, generally poor families with few lands and low income sources depending on their farm production
medium-sized and large farms owner, depending also only on their farm production
modest mixed families, relying on small or medium sized farms and external income sources
well-off mixed families, relying simultaneously on large farms and external income sources
average-class and modern families, with few lands and relying only on non agricultural activities

Most of the families decided to build an improved agricultural greenhouse for two purposes: self-consumption of vegetables and sale purpose. Generally, it’s the productivity of the greenhouse that relies on the motivations of the families to use it. There is four use profiles:
the commercial greenhouse, where the products are mainly sold
the “various uses” greenhouse, for self consumption and sale
the “kitchen garden” greenhouse, where more than 70% of the products is for self-consumption
the leisure greenhouse (modern families in Leh), where products are flowers, fruit trees,…

Correlating the family categories, the type of use and the average income shows interesting facts: the type of use and the productivity are conditioned by social categories. The most productive greenhouse are running by small farmers, modest mixed families or big farmers, who mainly sell the their products on market. For them, the improved agricultural greenhouse represents the best development tool, because it is their only source of cash during winter and spring. That enabled to consider that the greenhouses are especially profitable if the vegetables are sold. They mainly represent the “target group” for the extended improved greenhouse program: their activity benefits many families, because they make available of the products on the markets during winter season.

Monitoring show that improved greenhouse can generate up to 80% of the income of small farmer.
In winter, for family depending on agricultural activities,  vegetable production under greenhouse is the only way to generate income during the 6 months winter period.

Women are in charge of the running and selling the vegetable. Evaluation shows that often women manage themselves the income generated.  Sometimes, it is the first time that they manage some finance. The income is often invested in education (for the children) or agricultural tools (fruit trees, fencing) rather than consumer goods

Economical reality

The improved solar greenhouses built in Central Ladakh and Sham are rather used to product vegetables.  This is due to the efficiency of this tool, which encourages to use the entire surface available in culture, and to generate incomes for the family.
For weeding, watering, harvesting, working time is around 2 hours a day, around 15 hours per week everyday. Selling products during winter is the most profitable activity: it is possible to earn 2000-3000 Rps per month, when no other agricultural activities are possible and average income is less than 2000 Rps per month.

In these 2 areas, public transportation is existing between the villages and the market. Farmers are able to market themselves the production without any middle men,

In ChangTang the greenhouse are often attached to the existing house and used partly as a room for the comfort during the winter, to wash itself and sometimes to make craft (carpet etc) or even cattle shed. Greenhouse is mainly used in spring to produced seedling. It can be explained by the lack of market to sell the products and the extreme coldness (-35°C). In this area, wood fuel collection (10 tons) by the women and children request more than 2 months per year for house space heating. The main impacts are the reduction of the fuel wood consumption (by 65%) and the improvement of the inner atmosphere, which is less smoky.

The majority of the families concerned in Central Ladakh and Sham did not buy vegetables during the winter: thanks to their greenhouse, these families could reduce their food budget, in addition to the benefit carried out by the sale. For families who used to buy vegetables during the winter, the average economy on food purchase is 100 Rps per month and per person.
Among the savings, they are also the seedlings own-produced. These indirect profits are significant and systematically realised by the farmers; however is the finality of the production (subsistence farming or sale).
The most profitable productions come from the sale of vegetables on the markets and generate direct incomes for all the family.

Conclusion

Passive Solar Architecture can improve living conditions in cold regions of developing countries. GERES has been working for 20 years for the benefit of local development in the Himalayas especially by promoting well-adapted and eco-friendly technologies. GERES has developed specific tools in Ladakh (India, Himalayan range), which are replicable in other mountainous countries, in particular in central Asia: Tibet, Nepal, Afghanistan…
Passive solar architecture often used for housing can be applied for farming and other agricultural uses. It is necessary to think that a technology must be technically powerful and adapted. The improvements made by the farmers themselves were determinant for this success-story. Less expensive and as much effective, these tools became adapted for a large diffusion.
But technical improvement is essential but not sufficient. It is what this experiment taught us. A technology has future only if it is integrated, locally adapted, easy to build, the least expensive possible and profitable in the medium term. We learn that a rural family in a remote place in Chang Tang cannot sell his production because the absence of market. They will not have the means of making profitable the investment (greenhouse purchase).
In this case, the acquisition of the greenhouse can be related to a form of assistantship.

On the contrary, the families located near a market place (Central Ladakh, not far from Leh) have the possibility of generating incomes by the sale of whole or part of their production. That generates complementary incomes, so the acquisition of the greenhouse can be profitable. Farmers are able to grow vegetable under solar greenhouse all the year around. For the investment in Ladakh context, the payback period is less than 4 years. The selling of the vegetable produced under greenhouse can contribute up to 80 % of a household income.

Solar energy in mountainous developing countries can be used to generate economical activities, and improve living conditions. GERES develops other applications, which are successes for a sustainable development:
Passive solar renovation of domestic house by an attached greenhouse contributes to reduce by 70 % the fuelwood consumption and to double the handicraft production
Cottage solar poultry farm, with 100 to 500 birds, is a very lucrative activity to supply the main bazaars in winter.
Fruit processing, based on a market led approach too, is a cottage industry and supplies the local and tourist markets with solar dry products, jam and juice of apple and apricots.
Quality shawl, fitting production with the market demand, is a handicraft women activity. GERES develops adapted improved tools for spinning and weaving, and bioclimatic buildings.

From 2005, GERES starts in Ladakh a new rural development project, where bioclimatism and passive solar architecture take a significant place with the construction of 500 agricultural improved solar greenhouses and compost pits, 15 solar poultry farms, 10 fruit processing units and 80 solar lambing shed. Some hydraulic power generation stations will be set up too. This program includes the training of 6 local NGOs to implement the actions, because the success of such action can’t be guarantee without the local actors being strongly implied.

References
Solar heating in cold regions, (IT publications, 1996) Jean-François Rozis and Alain Guinebault (GERES). 168pp.
Solar greenhouse for the Trans-Himalayas. A construction manual. (ICIMOD, 2004) Vincent Stauffer. (GERES) 72pp.