Indigenous Technical Knowledge Relating to Farming Enterprises

Abstract

Indigenous technical knowledge has been traditionally owned wisdom from time to time, as the days gone it is likely to be forgotten by the society, due to an invasion of modern technologies. Due to ecological imbalance and onslaught of land, water and other natural resources, their ecology is disturbed. Taking this into consideration, this study focused on the ITK practices relating to the farming enterprises, undertaken at Idukki district of the Western Ghats in Kerala state, India. Sixty-one percent of the respondents belonged to the young age category (18-35 years. (Fig. 1 & Table1). Even though 61.00% of the respondents belong to young category there is strong adherence to ITK practices this shows their strong bondage of culture in following the similar ITK practices of their ancestors. Majority (64.00%) of the respondents had high value orientation (Fig. 2 & Table 1), (86.00%) possessed high level of norms, mores and taboos (Fig. 3 & Table 1). More than half of the respondents (51.00%) had a medium level of adherence to cultural characteristics (Fig. 4 & Table 1). The sample size consisted of 100 tribals and was interviewed personally for ITK documentation through open-ended questions and discussions. Two settlements (villages) in Devikulam taluk of Idukki district was taken for the study. The indigenous technology spread over the study area in paddy, ragi and beans, were collected besides, traditional wisdom in allied activities like dairy rearing was obtained from the majority of tribal men and few tribal women. Nearly 41 indigenous practices in paddy, ragi, beans were collected. Also, 8 indigenous traditions related to dairy were also collected.