Highland Agriculture Research Sub Station, Lari is situated in Spiti Valley of Lahul & Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of about 3250 masl  with latitude  320 04’ 21’’  to  320 04’ 49’’ N and  longitude 780 25’ 51’’ to  780 25’ 92’’ E on the left bank of Spiti river. The station was established on October, 11 1987 and became functional from April, 1988 with the transfer of land and other infrastructure from Desert Development Project, Kaza. Total area of the station is about 16.7 ha, out of which about 2.0 ha is under buildings, polyhouses and roads, 10 ha under apple orchard and 5.0 ha under field experiment. It represents a typical cold desert conditions of North Western Himalayas. The Spiti valley is characterized with sloppy desert high mountains, loose soil strata prone to erosion. Soil is silty-loam in texture with shallow base. Cold desert winds are peculiar and mercury goes down to -25 to -40⁰C during winter. Average rainfall in the valley is 100-150 mm. Very heavy precipitation occurs in the form of snow (100-200cm) during winter. Due to fast evaporation and typical soil structure, the fields need frequent irrigation and cultivation is possible only under assured irrigation conditions. The main cropping season of this area is between May to middle of October. During winter, area remains cut off from rest of the world for more than six months due to high snowfall.