Indigenous agriculture

Agriculture has always been regarded as an important aspect of the Indian economy. There is endless evidence, including several British and European accounts, which show the flourishing state of our agriculture in the pre-British period. Even today despite the declining contribution of this sector towards the nations GDP. It still remains a means of livelihood for thousands of people across.

Several of the indigenous practices like rotation of crops; drill husbandries etc. were perfected in India centuries before they were adopted by the other nations in their respective ‘agricultural revolution’.

There is much to be learned from these practices of the local people. They are many instances, which show that these practices are not only feasible but also sustainable i.e. they cause minimal ecological degradation. Hence regarding these indigenous knowledge as "low productive," "primitive," and "old" cannot be justified. Instead this knowledge should form the foundation of developing more sustainable practices and technologies.
People in the formal scientific knowledge system should grasp the importance of local knowledge.

Those studies, which do go into details of the indigenous agricultural practices, present an entirely different picture of it than what one would have imagined of an unscientific, backward and primitive system of agriculture. Bringing this will lead to a desirable change in the attitudes and behaviors of researchers and would stimulate the process of incorporating indigenous knowledge systems into agricultural research and extension.

Unfortunately everything comes with certain advantages and disadvantages. Despite its huge scope and potential for developing further, indigenous practices in India are obstructed due to the various traditions and superstitions prevalent around the country.

As discussed earlier, indigenous practices have existed due to certain beliefs and traditions hence various different types of these practices prevail throughout the country. These differences can be attributed to:

• The differences inherited by the people as cultivators, for instance, ‘caste’ and ‘race’ distinctions.
• Differences arising from purely external surroundings like, climate, soil, varying facilities for water, manure, wood, grazing, etc.
• Differences arising directly from want of knowledge, such as, diversities in agricultural practice.

Hence modifying these differences can bring about improvement in agriculture:
1. By transferring of indigenous knowledge from places where it is practiced to those where it is not practiced.
2. Modification of differences caused by physical factors for ex. Increasing fertility of soil by use of manure, devising ways to improve irrigation etc.
In a way the differences of practice and conditions contribute to the possibility of improvement. These improvements should be the modification, and transfer of these indigenous methods from one part of the country to another, and not adoption of western practices.

As discussed above Indian agriculture is said to backward and the techniques of cultivation are considered obsolete and useless. But all these allegations are false. The belief that ‘Indian ploughs merely scratch the surface’ is pure nonsense. In fact the ploughs used by the natives of our country are the most effective ones similarly the other indigenous implements used by them are the best. Hence there is ‘no’ to adopt sophisticated and expensive western instruments like seed-drills, mowers, reapers, threshing machines, etc.
Anyone, who ever watches the tools used by the natives like the seed-drill and the implements used, for harrowing, leveling, drilling, raising water, etc., will realize that if anything is to replace the existing implements it must be simple, cheap and effective and practical.

The indigenous tools and implements in India are mostly made of wood; hence they can be used even after rains! But the modern iron implements cannot be used since the moist soil sticks to the tools making it more difficult to work. Hence causing delays in tillage or early sowing in the monsoon, which results in disastrous results/ harvests.

An article was published in the ‘Ecologist' back in 1983 titled ‘Traditional agriculture in India: High yields and no waste” by Bharat Dogra. Since then, the argument and justification to revert to traditional and non-chemical methods of farming have grown stronger and more imperative.

The probable backwardness of the agriculture in India is mainly due to the absence of facilities, which are present in other districts and not due to any inherent bad systems of cultivation. Hence given the conditions under which Indian crops are grown, they are wonderfully good! The variety of crops grown in India since time immemorial is significantly more than that grown in any other country.

As opposed to other agricultural practices, everyone cannot adopt indigenous agricultural practices. They are ‘local’, and rooted to particular community, and situated within bordered cultural traditions.
They are a set of experiences generated by people living in those communities. It is experiential and not theoretical knowledge. The experience is gathered by trial and error, and then tested in the rigorous laboratory of survival of local communities.
Therefore, separating the technical from the non-technical, the rational from the non-rational is not easy or rather is very problematic. Hence when transferred to other places, there is a risk of dislocating the indigenous technical knowledge. It can be only transmitted orally, or through imitation and demonstration. It is learned through repetition, which aids in the retention and reinforcement of the indigenous technical knowledge.

Indigenous people have a broad knowledge of how to live sustainably. The formal education systems have disrupted the practical aspects of indigenous knowledge and ways of learning, replacing them with abstract knowledge and academic ways of learning. Hence there is a grave risk that the indigenous knowledge is being lost along with the valuable knowledge about ways of living sustainably.

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