LILLE FRO FOUNDATION

Horticultural Media Association

Greenhouse Growing In Remote India
By Karen Shaw, December 2013

Karen Shaw from Horticultural Media Association interviews Lille Fro Founder, Tamara Cannon on greenhouse growing at high altitude and Lille Fro’s community program in the Himalayas.

The Australian charity, Lille Fro, works in one of the most remote places on earth, Ladakh, in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. It focuses on helping communities build greenhouses so that villagers can grow their own food. Charity founder, Tamara Cannon tells the HMA News more…

What is Lille Fro and what does it do?

Lille Fro funds education for children, skills training programs for adults and has helped communities build greenhouses so that families can grow nutritious fresh food. This now helps to feed more than 370 people. Many families that we support survive on less than $1.25 a day. Some earn less than 40 cents a day by teaching communities how to grow fresh vegetables to support their families, we address the Millennium Development Goals to cut poverty, hunger, and disease and improve health. (www.un.org/millenniumgoals)

Explain the greenhouse design and construction?

The greenhouse design is scaled to suit community needs, accessibility and local conditions. Sizes vary from 10 to 20 metres long. Heat, trapped from daytime sunlight, is stored in walls made from locally produced mud bricks and is triple layered and insulated with straw. Polythene sheeting is ideal for the roof-it’s easily transportable and will withstand the heavy winter snowfalls. Manually operated ventilators release excess heat during summer months. The inner west wall is painted white to reflect the morning sun. The inner east wall is black to absorb and store heat until it is released in the HMA news evening. The bottom north wall is painted white and upper part black A solid roof is installed on the north side to limit heat loss. It’s sloped between 30″-40″ to prevent shading and damage from snowfall.

What do communities grow?

Many communities are traditional nomads with a diet lacking in healthy nutrients. Child mortality is high and life expectancy low. Root vegetables do really well and we are looking at introducing strawberries in summer because of their high vitamin C content. Other vegetables for summer include tomatoes and zucchini and spinach, coriander and carrots in winter. Women’s groups oversee the daily running of the greenhouses, taking turns to work and then share in the profits of excess vegetables sold at market. The community was thrilled when one of our greenhouses produced three yields. With the profits from selling the excess vegetables, the women’s alliance planted potatoes in nearby fields and produced an impressive 300 kg of potatoes. Our next project is to introduce our greenhouse program into six partner schools as part of our indigenous training program for children.

How can we help?

There are a number of ways to become involved whether it be making a donation, sponsoring a child or helping to fund a greenhouse. All contributions over $2 are tax deductible in Australia. While we don’t have the resources to deal with volunteers abroad, we will be running impact trips in future so that people can visit our projects, help and support Lille Fro Further information: www.lillefro.org