Farmers' Indigenous Knowledge Practice for Crop Protection: A Case Study of Ant Protection on Teff (Eragrostis teff) Crop in North Wollo, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was conducted under selective Kebeles in Kobo district of North Wollo Zone in the North eastern part of Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. Although farmers have imperative experience with indigenous knowledge to reduce and eliminate the effect of ant over teff crop, there is no any research document reported with this regard. Thus, the aim of this research is to explore farmers' indigenous knowledge on ant protection on teff crop. To do so, descriptive research design was adopted. From 400 farmers in selected kebeles, a total of 200 household farmers in five kebeles, 40 in each, were selected using purposive sampling techniques. In-depth interview with their culture, custom and in comfort and survey were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Then, the quantitative data were analyzed using IBM SPSS and the qualitative information was also summarized properly. Based on the analyzed data, the highest percentage of respondents (44.5%) were between the ages of 30-50 years while the lowest percentage (24%) of respondents found below the age of 30 years and the remaining percentage were above the age of 50. According to the interviewed data and survey results, farmers have used DDT (98%), ash (82%), herbal mulching (100%), burning on nest (38%), damping nest (64%). In general, this research tried to reveal the non chemical methods of indigenous knowledge used in the protection of teff crop. So that, it is better to investigate the chemical nature and the adverse effect of the above mentioned plant species on ant and need to scale up into industrial production.