At Siachen Naturals, every soup, every grain of barley, and every dried herb carries the story of a farmer in Ladakh who now earns a fair living from the land they love.
When we started Siachen Naturals, we weren't just thinking about products. We were thinking about people the farmers of Ladakh who work tirelessly on some of the world's most challenging terrain, yet struggle to earn a dignified living from it.
Our founder, Tsetan Dorjay, grew up here. He saw firsthand how families, especially women, were leaving their fields behind and taking up labour jobs elsewhere, simply because farming wasn't paying enough. He made a decision: to build something that would change that. That something became Siachen Naturals.
The Problem We Set Out to Solve
Barley is the backbone of Ladakhi cuisine. It goes into thukpa, tsampa, paba, and even the beloved local beer chang. And yet, a decade ago, farmers were growing barley season after season with nowhere to sell it. The market rate was a mere Rs 60 per kg — barely worth the effort.
Fields that had fed generations were at risk of being abandoned. We couldn't let that happen. The crop that is "in everything" in Ladakhi life deserved to be at the centre of a thriving livelihood — not treated as an afterthought.
How We Support Our Farmers
We built Siachen Naturals on one non-negotiable principle: farmers must be paid fairly, always.
Here is how we back that up:
✦ We pay Rs 75 per kg for barley above the market rate of Rs 60. Every rupee above that rate is our commitment to the farmer who grew it.
✦ Through our Self Help Group (SHG) partnerships, we guarantee our farmer partners approximately Rs 10,000 per month, whether or not we are actively purchasing from them that month. Income should be stable, not seasonal.
✦ We currently work with 30 women farmers in the Siachen Valley, and we are growing.
✦ We procure, process, and sell so farmers focus on what they do best: growing. We handle the market side, so they don't have to.
What We Make — and Why It Matters
Every product in our range is a direct extension of Ladakhi farming. Our barley soups, nettle soups, and barley porridge are made from ingredients grown and processed right here, nothing shipped in, nothing artificial.
We grind our barley using a traditional water mill, no electricity, powered entirely by the flow of mountain water. We use wild-harvested nettle leaves (zasthot) and caraway (kosnyot), and we sweeten our porridge with Halman apricots, not sugar.
When you buy from us, you're not just getting a wholesome product. You're directly supporting a farmer in Ladakh who now has a reason to stay on their land.
What's Next: Solar Dryers for Better Quality & More Income
We're investing in solar dryers to improve how we process our herbs, fruits, and other produce. Ladakh gets incredible sunlight, but uncontrolled sun exposure can damage the nutrients our customers value. Solar dryers let us control temperature and humidity, which means better quality products and less post-harvest waste.
Once in place, we'll also begin selling dried herbs and apricots independently — opening up new income streams for our farming families and new products for our customers.
The Change We're Seeing
Farmer Tsering Chondol once thought of her barley field as just part of the landscape. She never even measured it. Today, she is one of our most enthusiastic farmer partners, and she now actively encourages her children to take up farming as a career.
That change in perspective from "farming doesn't pay" to "farming can be a future" is exactly what Siachen Naturals was built to create. And we're just getting started.
Every purchase you make from Siachen Naturals goes back to the farmers of Ladakh.
Join us in keeping the fields of Ladakh alive and the people who tend them, thriving.
Inspired by reporting by Krystelle Dsouza, The Better India (8 May 2025). Original article: "Meet the Entrepreneur Helping Women in Ladakh Reclaim Barley Farming"
https://thebetterindia.com/425848/barley-ladakh-thukpa-tsetan-dorjay-of-siachen-naturals-empowering-farmers/