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The discussion on indigenous knowledge - which I prefer to call local scientific knowledge - awakens my enthusiasm to discuss it. I did research on cropland evaluation by village communities in Zanzibar, and found out successful land use management gives equal weight to local knowledge as much as it does for the global scientific knowledge.
The study investigated the preferences of the farming communities of Dole and Kiwengwa in Unguja of their lands for crop production. Studying preferences is one approach to assessing the performance of land for designated activity. The study utilised interviews with participatory mapping, direct observation, remote sensing, and GIS methods. The findings were evaluated within the theoretical framework of evolutionary perspectives and local factors for cropland preferences. The methodological basis was evaluated using the framework of dimensions of mapping. At a technical level, the strengths and weaknesses of key combined techniques of study were examined and suggestions for their improvement made.
Results show crop cultivation is the primary activity for most of adult members of village communities in the study villages. Crop cultivation practices and the communities’ common background create and shape criteria for evaluating land for crop cultivation.
Results show that the perception of village communities of the land that is suitable for crop cultivation is very different from that of conventional evaluative studies. For example, while the variation of the land suitability in modern farming systems varies very little over space of a typical Tanzanian village, in local agricultural systems varies significantly over the same space size. This is a result of limited capabilities of local communities to optimise land for crop cultivation.
Five criteria influence the community evaluation of land for crop cultivation. One is the constraints, which constitute all land uses but community crop cultivation. These include public agriculture under government institutions. The other four are the factors. These are soil suitability, distance to farms, land tenure insecurity, and animal pests. Soil promotes cropland preferences: the preference for a cropland increases with greater soil suitability. The rest detract the preference with their increasing magnitude. There is variation of magnitude of the factors within the croplands. The influence of the factors varies among the factors themselves and between the study villages. Soil suitability and distance to farms stand out as the most influential in the community evaluation of the present-day croplands and the location of alternative croplands. The influence of tenure insecurity and animal pests is limited to cropping practices, including the change of cropping patterns in the long term.
The acreage of the optimal present-day croplands, which feature most suitable soil and least of the detracting factors, is limited. Only a few of these croplands in the study villages can be farmed efficiently using rudimentary farming practices. They are used intensively. The other croplands are also useful to farmers, but require adaptive measures such as usage of non-motorised means of transport and planting crops less susceptible to animal pests.
In choosing alternative land uses, communities consider crop cultivation an important activity. Their choice of location of alternative croplands is not haphazard. It is influenced by soil suitability. In Kiwengwa, distance plays part as well. There is a gender dimension in the preferences for croplands and prioritisation of land uses. Women prefer food crop cultivation and other activities which meet domestic needs more than men do.
Basing on the findings and conclusions, recommendations given in this study are directed to increasing the performance of croplands to fulfil agricultural needs of the communities.
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Harun presents an interesting analysis on communal farms, especially coming at a time when there is a lot of talk on the looming food crisis.I certainly agree with you that there exists a need for the integration of local knowledge (which has stood the test of time)with conventional "western" knowledge to achieve successful land use management.
Generally, communal farms have been viewed as backward and unproductive for some time now. However, as highlighted here, traditional farming technologies reflect a worldview and an understanding of our relationship to the natural world that is more realistic and more sustainable than those of conventional agriculture. This worldview has seen these farms thrive for many years without reliance on fertilisers and pesticides, and producing yields under marginal environmental conditions.
However,it will be interesting to know whether small/traditional farms with their use of indigenous technologies(knowledge)are a key for the country’s food security? |
Melusile, I like the question you ask.
In Russia, a businessman with the name of Vladimir Megré wrote a series of
books on a mysterious women he is said to have met in the Siberian forest
called Anastasia. Apart from all kinds of esoteric stuff, the central idea
of the books is that everybody should be allowed to have one hectare to farm
on (without fertilisers). She also stresses the importance of local culture.
More than 11 million of the first book have been sold in Russia alone, and a
whole new movement has started. I have heard that something like 70% of all
Russia's food is presently produced in Dachas - little gardens that town
people keep on the side.
All over the world thousands of small self-sustainable communities and
'eco-villages' are being established. I have just started participating in
one such community, although there are very few in South Africa as yet. All
these people have come to the conclusion that small-scale organic farming
(i.e. without the input of non-sustainable energy subsidies in the form of
electricity from coal, fertilizers, etc.) is the only answer. I suspect that
the present energy crisis is functioning as a substantial boost to this way
of thinking.
The problem as I see it is that the glitter of western technology without
awareness of the underlying utter unsustainability and destructiveness
inherent in this very technology has blinded most of the world and led
billions to lose their age-old connection with nature. To be seen living a
simple life in harmony with the environment was and is seen as 'primitive'.
And so billions migrate to the cities, where they live in poverty and
squalor, and are sustained only by the illusion of the promise of future
wealth. Anybody who gives the matter the least bit of serious thought will
realise that this is impossible. However, it is vital for those in power and
those with excessive wealth that the masses believe in this illusion. If
they don't, the whole system will collapse.
Science can be a blessing or a curse. For those who pursue what Einstein
called a 'holy curiosity' it is the joyous pursuit of aiming towards a
deeper understanding of reality. However, the words 'proven scientifically'
have obtained a meaning not dissimilar from what 'God says so' or 'the Bible
says so' had (and have) in religion. Those who wanted to sell things were
not slow to realise this, and science has literally been hijacked. It has
been used to 'prove' that breastfeeding is not necessary (and that all kinds
of expensive food supplements are), that proper food cannot be grown without
fertilisers, etc. Despite the massive failure of the so-called 'green
revolution' and the utter destruction of soils all over the world it has
caused, African governments (including our own) still allow themselves to be
duped by the large agro-chemical companies into believing that more of the
same can solve our food problems.
Ultimately science actually 'proves' nothing. But honest, systematic
enquiry, which is what science was originally meant to be, can certainly
help us find better solutions. And my humble opinion is that the kind of
communication that I see on Dlist is at least as important as the often
inaccessible research that is hidden in scientific journals.
The famous historian Arnold Toynbee wrote in his massive collection of books
titled 'A Study of History': "An unbiased observer will credit Africa with
achievements comparable to those in other societies — and such societies
have been the normal type, so far — in which an obsessive concern with
technology has not been allowed to overshadow everything else. It will be
recognized that Africa has made a special — perhaps not yet adequately
recognized — contribution to Mankind’s cultural achievements in the spheres
of social relations and of Man’s relations with non-human Nature."
Unfortunately, little of this remains in the desperate struggle to become
westernised (and rich). Real change won't come from governments or large
corporations. Real change can only come from us - the people on the ground.
So my answer to your question, Melusile, is a definte 'yes'. small/
traditional farms with their use of indigenous technologies(knowledge)are
indeed critical for the country’s food security.
Douwe
-----Original Message-----
From: Melusile Ndlovu [mailto:megabula@yahoo.com]
Sent: 27 May 2008 03:48 PM
To: General Discussion
Subject: Re: [DLIST Discuss] Researching Potentials of Local Scientific
Knowledge using Participatory GIS Approach
Harun presents an interesting analysis on communal farms, especially coming
at a time when there is a lot of talk on the looming food crisis.I certainly
agree with you that there exists a need for the integration of local
knowledge (which has stood the test of time)with conventional "western"
knowledge to achieve successful land use management.
Generally, communal farms have been viewed as backward and unproductive for
some time now. However, as highlighted here, traditional farming
technologies reflect a worldview and an understanding of our relationship to
the natural world that is more realistic and more sustainable than those of
conventional agriculture. This worldview has seen these farms thrive for
many years without reliance on fertilisers and pesticides, and producing
yields under marginal environmental conditions.
However,it will be interesting to know whether small/traditional farms with
their use of indigenous technologies(knowledge)are a key for the country’s
food security? |
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