: How 3 Friends Are Helping Ladakhi Farmers Earn More by Staying Home #IndiaNEWS #Ladakh On a summer day in July 2018, 30-year-old Thinless Norboo and his friends visited Hamya, a village in the Rong

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How 3 Friends Are Helping Ladakhi Farmers Earn More by Staying Home #IndiaNEWS #Ladakh
On a summer day in July 2018, 30-year-old Thinless Norboo and his friends visited Hamya, a village in the Rong Changthang area of Leh district neighbouring his native Liktse (village).
During his visit to Hamya, Thinless realised that all the young women and men were missing. That’s when he came across three grandmothers, asking them where all the young people had gone. One grandmother replied that all of them had taken their livestock to graze uphill. However, as he began to enquire further, another grandmother remarked that she was joking and that all the young men and women had gone to Leh city for better economic opportunities.
“When one of the abilays (grandmothers) opened my eyes to how all the youth from the village had left for Leh leaving them behind for better economic opportunities, it hit me quite hard. That’s when I started thinking about what I could do for them to sustain themselves in their villages so that they don’t have to leave,� says Thinless, speaking to The Better India.
Later that year, he joined the Naropa Fellowship programme, a one-year course focussed on creating “agents of change� working towards “fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and growth� while preserving the “heritage of Ladakh� and the larger Himalayan region.
It was at the programme, where Thinless, who holds a Bachelors degree in English literature, met Stanzin Jordan (30), a graduate of Buddhist philosophy and resident of Sankar in Leh, and Sonam Stanzin (28), an information technology graduate from Tangtse village, Changthang.
(Above image from Left to Right: Stanzin Jordan, Sonam Stanzin and Thinless Norboo)
The three young men harboured similar visions of starting a venture that would positively impact the lives of farmers in the region so that they don’t have to leave their homes. During the programme, they worked on ideas for a venture ranging from agro-tourism to sustainable greenhouses to help revive Ladakh’s fading food heritage.
They finally landed on the creation of Ladakh Basket, a local e-commerce venture conceived in June 2019, which seeks to preserve indigenous culture, promote organic farming and ensure farmers in Ladakh’s remotest corners have access to markets outside the region.
“Our vision is to preserve and showcase the unique narrative of its people and land through indigenous produce. Ladakh Basket is an online and offline platform, where we sell the region’s indigenous produce to the rest of the world. In doing so, we empower the local farmers to sustain themselves in their villages. We also aim to be sustainable by using environment friendly and reusable materials for packaging our products.

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