Thesis Abstract of AGS Students

Indigenous knowledge in agroforestry and soil conservation in mid hills region of Nepal

Surendra Bahadur Thapa (1996)

The communities in Eastern mid hills region of Nepal has a long tradition and rich experiences in farming systems and soil management. The multiethnic and multilinguistic compositions of inhabitants have provided insight in the manipulation of natural resources. In this regard, the research was carried out in four villages of Tamku Village Development Committee (VDC) in Eastern mid hills region of Nepal. The objectives were to document and analyze the indigenous knowledge (IK) in agroforestry and soil conservation practices, to examine IK in sustaining farmers' income, and to identify the problems and constraint in adoption of modern knowledge in soil conservation practices (MK-SC). Information was obtained from 134 sampled households through formal and informal survey and both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted for data analysis.

Agrosilvipastoral is the dominant type of agroforestry system in all the study villages. Crop/ livestock/farm and forest trees are the major components of their subsistence livelihood which is often supplemented by forest products. Due to close association with local bio-physical and socio-economic environment, farmers have accumulated substantial knowledge about the surrounding environment that has reflected in their indigenous plant and soil classification systems, objectives and criteria for analysis and evaluation, and utilization and management practice of natural resource base. Therefore, the IK of these communities encompasses a number of general principles and specific rules that regulate their behavior towards nature. The major focuses of IK include plant and soil classification and distribution, temporal ecological events, and social processes that consequently facilitated them to identify and formulate resource management strategies and consequently help to take right decision to shape the sustainability of indigenous land use.

Farmers classified plant species based on morphology, utility criteria, and individual plant characteristics. As the villagers were concerned mainly on fodder trees, their utility criteria were also based on fodder quality and quantity performance for livestock production. Similarly, indigenous soil classification is based on color followed by texture along with location and relationships with agronomical crops. Such classification provides a framework for innovation and incorporation of new components in the existing farming systems.

Concerning the problems and constraints for adoption of MK-SC, around half of the population stated the main reason as lack of sufficient knowledge regarding the subject. This implies that the outside development agencies have significant roles in the information dissemination and adoption of newly innovated materials and methods. Similarly, the degree of adoption of indigenous knowledge in soil conservation practices (IK-SC) and MK-SC were used as variables to analyze the role of these practices in the households gross income. The degree of adoption index was defined as the percentage of area under soil conservation practices (SCP) and calculated by aggregating each area of land under each conservation practice over total farm land. The average degree of index was calculated at 161% and 17% for IK-SC and MK-SC respectively. An examination of the production function illustrated that all selected variables (land, labor, livestock unit, productive farm trees, and degree of adoption of IK-SC and MK-SC) explained 75.22% of the variation in gross value of production. Both IK-SC and MK-SC were significant variables in the function, although MK-SC showed a greater contribution towards income given the same degree of adoption. Nevertheless, given the low degree of adoption of MK-SC, it would be reasonable to adopt IK-SC until MK-SC can be expended to a larger scale.

Labor availability, food habit, social belief, soil type, land aspect, plant characteristics were some of the factors which interplayed with IK in farmers' selection and adoption of crop and tree species. IK and to lesser extent MK served as the basis for holistic decision making that exhibited farmers' capacity and flexbility for adaptation to change. Further, on the basis of such knowledge, farmers formulated strategies such as diversification, intensification, cost minimization, community management, and local organization not only to meet the diverse objectives and needs but also ensure a sustainable use of local resources in the long run.

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