Challenging Farming Conditions in Ladakh
At an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) and with minimal rainfall, the Himalayan village of Sakti presents a harsh environment for farming.
"Ladakh has a brutal, single-cultivation season,"says Gelak Gutme, who has cultivated wheat, peas, and potatoes there for most of his 65 years.
"It is a desert with an extreme climate,"he adds.
Over his lifetime, conditions have deteriorated. Due to global warming, the smaller glaciers at lower altitudes that once supplied water for crops have vanished.
"Now there is scarcity of water. Last year I lost everything - my entire field got dried due of lack of water,"Gutme reports.
"For generations, small glaciers sitting right above the valleys acted like frozen water towers, holding onto water all winter and releasing it right when spring farming began,"explains Lobzang Fardod, a member of a local water management committee in Ladakh.
"Now that those lower glaciers have completely vanished into a desert of dry rock, there is nothing left at the top to melt,"he states.
The short mountain summer requires farmers to plant crops by May to ensure harvest before winter returns.
A reliable early spring water source is essential for successful cultivation.
Development of Artificial Ice Reservoirs
To secure this vital water supply, some Ladakh villages began creating artificial ice reservoirs in the early 2010s.
The method involved piping water from higher mountain elevations during winter and spraying it into the air, where it froze and gradually formed large ice towers known as ice stupas.
These structures successfully provided meltwater in spring but were difficult to maintain under severe winter conditions, according to Fardod.
"If temperatures dropped quickly below minus 20C, or sometimes minus 30C, the water in the pipes was liable to freeze, cracking the pipes and ruining the whole system,"he explains.
To prevent freezing, teams of four or five farmers camped near the water source during winter, often rushing to clear blockages with boiling water, especially during cold nights.
However, enduring freezing nights at high altitude was challenging and unsustainable.
Technological Innovations in Water Management
"Because traditional water systems are failing, Leh-Ladakh has become a hub for innovative, grassroots hydraulic engineering,"says Murtaza Ali, executive engineer in the Irrigation and Flood Control Division at the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council.
Leh, the capital of Ladakh, is located in a disputed region of Indian-administered Kashmir, bordered by China to the east and Pakistan to the west.
Besides the risk of cracked pipes, the original ice stupa system was inefficient because continuous water flow on warmer days caused previously formed ice to melt.
In recent years, this approach has been improved technologically.
In collaboration with the private company Acres of Ice, a new system called the Automated Ice Reservoir (AIR) has been developed to precisely control ice formation.
This system also pipes water from higher mountain areas, but the water arrives at the valley floor under pressure and is expelled from a vertical nozzle resembling a "massive fountain," according to Dr. Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian, founder of Acres of Ice.
The flow is computer-controlled via a weatherproof control box powered by solar panels and a battery.
The control system is connected to a weather station monitoring environmental conditions, including water temperature inside the pipe.
"If the sensors detect that the air temperature is dropping too fast, or the water temperature inside the pipe approaches a dangerous threshold, the control system takes action,"Balasubramanian explains.
It shuts off the valve at the top of the stream and opens a valve at the bottom to drain standing water from the pipe, preventing pipe damage from freezing.
This system is also more efficient at ice production. Instead of spraying water continuously, AIR emits bursts of mist that coat existing ice layers and then pauses.
"The system waits precisely long enough for that layer of water droplets to freeze solid based on current wind and humidity, then fires the spray again,"Balasubramanian states.
He notes that AIR converts nearly all diverted water into ice.
The entire system operates automatically and uses a local wireless network to connect the control box and valves, though villagers retain manual override capability.
Impact and Future Prospects
The system appears to be positively impacting village life.
"When we speak to the villagers, they are saying the groundwater is getting recharged and spring sources are getting revived. They are getting water in time. We are also planning a scientific study now to see exactly what impact it has made,"says Ali.
During the winter of 2025, Acres of Ice and the local government implemented 10 AIR projects across Ladakh.
"Our biggest challenge right now is to push the envelope in the technology to see how we can multiply the number of ice reservoirs we are building. With the same system that previously used to build only one ice reservoir, can we build a dozen?,"Balasubramanian says.
Back in Sakti, farmer Gutme expresses optimism about the future.
The single AIR system has created a more reliable water source, and he hopes the village will construct at least two more artificial glaciers.
"I am a farmer, land is all that I have to survive on. I don't know the technology, all that I know today is that I have water to grow my crops.
We live in harsh climate that makes our life difficulty and lack of water was creating more issues. Many of youths in the village wated to go to cities to work. That would have been a disaster."
