Indigenous Knowledge

Knowledge is clearly a necessary factor in smallstock production. There is also an important role for the production of new knowledge through research, and its dissemination to livestock producers. However, it is also very important to recognize and respect the indigenous knowledge of livestock producers, sometimes referred to as: local people's knowledge, or traditional knowledge, or by specialized terms such as: ethno-veterinary knowledge, or ethno-animal husbandry. The role of indigenous knowledge in the sustainable management of the environment, and of livestock in that environment, remains an important issue that should not be overlooked.

Characteristics of Indigenous Knowledge Investigating Indigenous Knowledge References and Further Reading

There is a significant literature on indigenous knowledge in general, some literature on ethno-veterinary knowledge (indigenous knowledge of animal health), but much less on indigenous knowledge of animal production. This page introduces a few key points on indigenous knowledge of agriculture and natural resources.

Indigenous knowledge is important, and respecting it:

• is an essential first step for development projects,
• allows better innovation and adaptation of technologies
• adds to scientific knowledge
• increases understanding between researchers and local people
• increases the local capacity to experiment and innovate
• empowers local people (Warburton and Martin 1999)

With respect to traditional forms of veterinary knowledge and practices, in particular, there is a clear need to:

• promote understanding and documentation of important and useful local medicinal practices and plants, and
• evaluate and protect the medicinal (and economic) benefits for communities that have long developed and used this knowledge.

 

Indigenous knowledge is:

• Not uniformly distributed. It is more sophisticated in areas or topics which are important to people and which are easily observed.
  
• Can be held by all in the society or by specialists; different areas of indigenous knowledge can be held by men and women.
  
• Not isolated from other belief systems: for example from religions, from beliefs about the human body, and from general classifications of the universe, e.g. into "hot" and "cold" or "wet" and "dry".
  
• Not always explicit: farmers may not always be able to articulate what they know, they may simply practice it ("tacit knowledge")
  
• Not always right: it may be wrong or even dangerous.
  
• Dynamic not static: it evolves, it incorporates indigenous experimentation, and it can adapt to new materials and circumstances.

There is often value in transferring indigenous knowledge across communities, even between countries.

However, changing circumstances, such as a shift to more intensive farming systems, or new animal diseases, can also render indigenous knowledge obsolete and increase the need for new, externally-generated knowledge.

Investigating Indigenous Knowledge

Indigenous knowledge must by its very nature be investigated by open-ended techniques such as PRA methods. Grandin and Young (1994) give a good overview of methods for eliciting ethno-veterinary knowledge, which by extension can also be applied to indigenous knowledge of livestock production.

R5690: Strategies for the allocation of seasonally varying feed resources to optimise productivity from mixed species livestock holdings.

R7164: Indigenous knowledge, participatory appraisal and animal health information systems.

R7637: Integrating indigenous and biological knowledge to implement improved dry season feeding strategies on farms in the hills of Nepal.

Investigating the biological basis of tree fodder evaluation by farmers

Subba, D., Thorne, P.J. and Sinclair, F.L. (2002) Using local knowledge as a basis for planning ruminant diets in the mid hills of Nepal. pp. 238-239. Responding to the Increasing Global Demand for Animal Products: Programme and Summaries 112.

Good general introductions to indigenous knowledge in general, which have been drawn on for this page, is:

Warburton, H. and Martin, A. (1999). Local People’s Knowledge: Its Contribution to Natural Resource Research and Development. Chapter 3 in Grant, I. and Sear, C. (eds.) Decision Tools for Sustainable Development, NRI, Chatham.

Warburton, H. and Martin, A. (1999) Local people’s knowledge in natural resources research. Socio-economic Methodologies for Natural Resources Research. Chatham , UK : Natural Resources Institute.

Grandin, B. and Young, J. (1994). Ethnoveterinary Question List, in RRA Notes, No.20, (Special Issue on Livestock).

Martin, M., Mathias, E. and McCorkle, C. (2001). Ethnoveterinary Medicine: An annotated bibliography of community animal healthcare, ITDG Publishing, London

McCorkle, C., Mathias, E. and van Veen, T.S. (1996) Ethnoveterinary Research and Development, ITDG Publishing, London

Sources of information on indigenous knowledge of animal production include:

IFAD (no date) Women's Indigenous Knowledge of Livestock Production.
which is a summary of:

Niamir-Fuller, M. (1994). Women Livestock Managers in the Third World: Focus on Technical Issues Related to Gender Roles in Livestock Production. IFAD Staff Working Paper No.18

Miti ni Mali in Uganda

Miti ni Mali in Kenya

World Bank: Indigenous Knowledge Program. http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/

IK pages. http://www.ik-pages.net/

Best Practices on Indigenous Knowledge http://www.unesco.org/most/bpindi.htm