Abstract:
This article is based on a study that sought to explore small-scale farmers’ perceptions and
understanding of indigenous farming with an ultimate goal of promoting the use of IK for
agricultural development in Tanzania. This study was mainly qualitative, where semistructured
interviews were used to collect data from 181 small-scale farmers in six rural
districts of Tanzania. Based on the study findings, it was evident that the local communities
had an extensive base of IK and understanding of their environment, and they were able to
put appropriate managerial skills and adaptive strategies to crop and animal farming. The
findings also showed that IK was location specific, and farmers possessed IK on various
farm tasks such as evaluation of soil quality, preservation of planting materials and crops,
plant diseases and pest control and animal disease control. It is thus important to understand
and facilitate the identification, documentation and use of this knowledge as well as
integrating it with conventional knowledge for improved agricultural activities. The knowledge
intermediaries (research, education, information and knowledge services, and
agricultural support services) should thus conduct regular user studies to identify, validate
and document IK in order to determine areas that need intervention, and to enable the
incorporation of IK into research to enrich the agricultural technology development process and make it relevant for farmers.
