Integrating indigenous knowledge of farmers for sustainable organic farming: An assessment in Uttarakhand state of India

Summary

Success of organic farming largely depends on farmers’ knowledge of ecological systems, environment and on-farm renewable resources, as per the principles of organic farming. A study has been conducted to know the traditional knowledge and indigenous practices being followed by farmers in agriculture and animal husbandry to assess the possibility of integrating with organic farming in Uttarakhand, which is the first state in India promoting organic farming in a systematic way. The farmers of Uttarakhand especially women possessed a vast pool of indigenous knowledge with regards to livestock management leading to reduced dependence on externally purchased inputs as required under organic farming systems. And the farmers were in the practice of utilizing renewable farm resources. The Uttarakhand Organic Commodity Board (UOCB) had taken initiatives like compiling farmers’ age old knowledge, “sayings” and “practices” relating to natural resource management in the form of booklets to protect it from gradual extinction and integrating it successfully with organic production methods. Such knowledge and practices of farmers is worth validating and exchanging with the other parts of the world to make organic agriculture sustainable.