Indigenous Technical Knowledge

Abstract

In spite of rapid advancement in scientific knowledge in agriculture, ITK based practices are still being used by majority of the farming community, particularly in resource poor farming situations. In this context, blending of indigenous knowledge with modern scientific technologies is the need of the day to support sustainable development of agriculture and allied sectors in our country. Agricultural research for the most part has been highly discipline- oriented in our country. Normal science generates packages, whereas resource-poor families engaged in farming, find it difficult to adopt the new technologies due to inadequate scientific knowledge as well as lack of adequate financial resources. Improved agricultural technologies focuses primarily on attaining high yield of target crops. The introduction of modern technologies viz. application of chemical fertilizers, agrochemicals, machinery, and modern methods of irrigation in developing countries resulted in departure from traditional agriculture and non-judicious use of new technologies may lead to environmental pollution and land degradation. In addition, lack of relevance to small farm situations has been found to be one of several constraints in the adoption of modern technologies by farmers. During the process of technology development, farmers' traditional knowledge is usually not considered. On-farm trials conducted by researchers and extension workers mostly concentrate on crop varietal comparison, fertilizer response, and testing of different packages of practices for different crops. While developing farmers friendly modern technologies, there is a need to incorporate, farmers experiences on alternative coping strategies to avoid extreme conditions such as droughts and floods, diversified food production techniques such as intercropping and border cropping in order to broaden their food and fodder requirements, and adjusting their sowing and harvesting periods to meet the local market demand.