Khet Bachao Abhiyan 2026 in Changthang: sustainable agriculture in India’s highest farming villages

The Khet Bachao Abhiyan (KBA) 2026, a nationwide campaign launched by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, under the theme ‘Healthy Soil – Healthy Crop – Prosperous Farmer,’ was implemented in the ecologically sensitive Changthang region of eastern Ladakh during June 1–30, 2026. Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Nyoma, Leh II University of Ladakh served as the Nodal Institution, implementing the campaign in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Union Territory of Ladakh, with active participation of Junior Extension Officers from the Nyoma, Tangtse and Durbuk blocks. The campaign opened with a technology exhibition at the Vibrant Village of Chumur, coinciding with a visit by the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, where bio-inputs (neem oil, bionutrient formulations and Jeevamrit), a curd milk churner and UV-stabilised greenhouse polythene were demonstrated to 240 farmers, delegates and school children. Implementation in this setting was inherently challenging, owing to an extreme cold-arid climate, a short field season, widely dispersed settlements, restricted border-area access, and limited local agri-input supply infrastructure. Subsequent field demonstrations across Changthang covered natural farming inputs (Jeevamrit and Beejamrit preparation), black polythene mulching, oyster mushroom cultivation and the Ladakh Greenhouse Scheme, alongside structured dissemination of PM-KISAN, the Kisan Credit Card, the Compost Pit Scheme, the National Mission on Natural Farming, and Agriculture Technology Management Agency-supported training. Across all documented programme sites, over 350 farmers participated, with distribution of vegetable seedlings, neem oil, bionutrient formulations and Jeevamrit. This paper presents the implementation methodology, key activities, scheme dissemination, farmer responses and challenges specific to the cold-arid high-altitude agro-ecosystem, and discusses the replicability of this convergence-based extension model for frontier zones of India. The principal contributions of this study are threefold: it provides one of the first documented accounts of a national agricultural extension campaign implemented in India’s highest farming villages, demonstrates the feasibility of a KVK–Agriculture Department convergence model in an extreme high-altitude setting, and offers a replicable framework linking natural-farming technology transfer with government scheme dissemination for other frontier agro-ecosystems.