INDIGENOUS TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
Indigenous knowledge is considered as a part and parcel of traditional agriculture. Such knowledge have developed through informal research made by the farmers over centuries. These are developed by the local people and refined by its users and so very often unique to a given culture and society. These are simple, sustainable, adaptable, stable, harmless and depends upon the locally available materials.
Largest number of such technologies have been evolved and are maintained in the rain fed tracts till date. With the introduction of Green Revolution agriculture many of such technologies have been forgotten due to adoption of the so called modern technologies. But with the emergence of 2nd generation problems in the irrigated areas the scientists are thinking critically to collect such information for blending them with the modern technology for the sustainability of the latter.
Indigenous knowledge encompasses all the areas of human welfare including field / garden / orchard crops; human and animal health; and environment and ecology. In this booklet an attempt has been taken to collect information related to agriculture and agricultural festivals of the Bargarh district covering both the rainfed and irrigated areas.
Farmers are the masters of their system and from among them some ceaselessly try to modify the existing practices for overall improvement of the system. Development of ITKs can certainly be traced back to such type of mentality of these category of farmers. If we make a close look on the farming activities of some farmers of the present time we can certainly find out such farmers even today. And their peculiar activities may be accepted by other farmers in course time and those may one day be designated as indigenous knowledge in future. In this booklet such type of things have also been included in the name of "Farmers' Informal Experiments". Such experiments are made by the farmers themselves for which they would have got the initial idea either from own observation/ intuition / curiosity; or would have heard / seen such things during their interaction/ exposures. In this booklet efforts have been made to collect both the old practices adopted by a group of farmers (ITKs) and the new methods followed by a single farmer (FIE). Often the latter acts like a demonstration for other farmers of that area.
The booklet is a collection of few such practices collected only from the adopted villages of KVK and so it is like a drop in the ocean. The ITK section also includes some special recipes prepared by the local people and 4 agricultural festivals.

..............................................................................

Therefore it is reported that

"There is general agreement that concepts ‘indigenous knowledge’ (IK), ‘traditional knowledge’, ‘local knowledge’, ‘community knowledge’ and ‘rural peoples’ knowledge’ are all terms for knowledge belonging to grassroots people. While certain distinctions can be made, these terms often refer to the same thing. In the area of research, farmers’ knowledge, which they have been putting into practice for decades, encompasses not only IK, but also scientific and other knowledge gained from foreigners. Some of the farmers’ knowledge has resulted from experimentation and the observation of their environment"[Ghosh, S. 2002. Farmers’ Knowledge and GIS. Kisan World, 29 (4): 31-32].

................................................................

Source: Barik, T. and Barik K.C. 2006. Indigenous Knowledge, Agricultural Festivals and Farmers’ Informal Experiments of Bargarh District. Extension Education Bulletin No. 27. Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Bargarh, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India, 751003. 44pp.