Rationalisation of indigenous technical knowledge on pest management in the farm production systems of Palakkad District

Abstract

The study on "Rationalisation of Indigenous Technical Knowledge on pest m.anagement in the farm production systems of Palakkad district" was conducted with the over-riding objective of compiling. and cataloguing the Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) including contemporary farmers' innovations in pest management in the major production systems, and analysing the evaluative perception and rationality of ITK items. The respondents of the study comprised of 150 farmers, 84 extensionists (including agricultural and veterinary departments) and 60 scientists, from agricultural and veterinary faculties. The study was conducted as a phased programme. The analysis of data elicited through Key Informant Workshops (KIW's) and Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) sessions were subjected to various statistical analyses. The results of the study confirmed that farmers have rich knowledge on pest management developed by their ancestors and peers. The results established that the farmers did not perceive all the traditional practices as good or sound. They defended their opinions based on multi- faceted technology evaluation attributes and field realities. The ITK's screened through KIW's when subjected to the researchers and extensionists showed high difference of opinion, though some sort of similarity was also observed, when the ITK attributes were considered separately. On combined effect of perceived effect and scientific rationality of ITK items, similarity of opinion was observed in high potential and low potential ITK's as perceived by researchers and extensionists. The ITK's screened through Key Informant Workshops, when subjected to the researchers and extensionists, received differential perceptions in many cases and agreement on others. Besides these, there existed high correlation and significant relationship between the perceived effect and scientific rationality of each ITK as perceived by researchers and extensionists. Hence it could be concluded that majority of the ITK items with high perceived effect were perceived to have high scientific rationality also, though a few showed no relation at all. This indicated that perceived effect of an ITK is highly influenced by its scientific rationality and vice versa.

While analysing the combined response of researchers and extensionists on the perceived effect and scientific rationality of ITK items, separately, majority of the items seemed to be non significant. This shows that both researchers and extensionists differed greatly in the perception of an ITK on its perceived utility. It could be further narrowed down that the attitude and viewpoints of researchers were different from the extensionists. The critical examination of the data analysed proved that there existed some sort of agreement in response pattern given by the farmers, researchers and extensionists. There were some ITK's which showed similarity in the response of high ranking and low ranking ones as given by all the three-respondents. At the same time a few ITK's clearly discriminated the perception of researchers and extensionists. This means that there were a few ITK's that discriminated the researchers and extensionists widely and a few others which exhibited agreement. Results of the study indicated the need for indepth assessment and validation of ITK's at laboratory and field levels through multidisciplinary approach, other than mere documentation and romanticization of all traditional knowledge without reasoning. While doing so, all the dimensions related to each specific technology must be worked out.