Typically, the Bangladeshi production system comprises farmers cultivating small, intensively managed plots, crowded together across floodplain, a mix of landowners, sharecroppers and landless labourers. Muslim families dominate rural society. Farmers cultivate rice as a staple, together with other crops like mustard, onions and jute, for subsistence and sale at local markets. The number of crops, which they are able to take in a year, varies from one to three, depending on the extent and duration of inundation of plots, large areas of floodplain disappearing under water from a few weeks to several months during the monsoon. At this time, many people turn to fishing to supply some of their food. A few persons, largely Hindu of low jele caste, are full full-time or professional fisherman, although their numbers have been decreasing of late with extensive disruption to the hydrological cycle, notably with the construction of flood protection devices. They have joined the human flood of dispossessed persons, who eke out an existance by labouring, pulling rickshaws, petty trading and so on in towns and rural areas. Recent strategy documents for environmental management and agricultural extension indicate that, the government of Bangladesh is increasingly interested in seeing some attention given to indigenous knowledge, particularly as it relates to natural resources management and agro-forestry. The new agricultural Extension policy states that: “It is recognised that farmer’s own indigenous technical knowledge is often environmentally sustainable and efforts should be made to support and learn from farmers, as well as the formal research system”, going on that “The new agriculture extension policy also recognises that farmers themselves are actively engaged in their own experimentation, as part of their daily agricultural lives. Efforts to learn from and strengthen such informal research should be made”, These sentiments are expressed by many of the contributors of agro-forestry researchers. It is clearly an opportune time for us to advance on indigenous knowledge work in the context of agro-forestry development initiatives in the country.
Indigenous technical knowledge
Researchers had found that, farmers generally favoured the advance of indigenous technical knowledge in the development of agricultural production. Innovations based on scientific technical knowledge have been widely adopted by resource-rich farmers, but this has not been possible for resource-poor farmers, a larger segment of the rural population, who are dependent mostly on indigenous technical knowledge. Recently, many Govt. & Ngo agencies have started to advocate the use of some selected indigenous technical knowledge by farmers to mitigate environmental degradation. The practices are many and examples include:
The use of bamboo sticks or tree branches for insect control;
The sprinkling of cattle urine or spreading of tobacco dust to control pests (nicotine is an effective insect repellent);
The use of ‘Neem’ leaves with its insecticide ‘azadirachtin’ and ‘ Bishkatali’ leaves, when storing seeds to deter insect attack.
The laddering of standing wheat crops and pulling of ropes across rice/wheat fields early in the morning to moisten the soil with falling dew drops;
The inter-cropping of garlic with potato;
The use of ash in vegetable cultivation, which contain all essential minerals (in varying proportion) and adds to water holding capacity of the soil; and
The application of poultry excretes to vegetable gardens to provide nitrates.
Conclusion:
In ensuring that agro-forestry development is sustainable, Scientific technical knowledge should not be abandoned, but rather combined with appropriate indigenous technical knowledge. As researchers have points out, “The assumption is that, our indigenous knowledge needs to be conveyed to scientists in such a way that they can appreciate its relevance.” An example of this is provided by the National Agriculture Research System ( NARS) in India, in collaboration with NGOs, who developed an integrated nutrient management system for crop production on Maharashtra to increase and sustain crop productivity, whilst also protecting the environment. The system was developed for resource poor-farmers who could not afford expensive agrochemicals in crop production. The system, a bland of scientifically generated technical knowledge with indigenous practices, is flexible in that, it can adjust to Agro-climatic changes as well as the variable socio-economic conditions faced by farmers. We should aim to strengthen the potential of both scientific and indigenous technical knowledge by considering the following:
We should encourage the identification, collection and documentation of indigenous technical knowledge before much of it is lost;
Research should be conducted to determine the performance potential of indigenous technical knowledge. Necessary modifications and improvement to indigenous technical knowledge should be made according to scientific findings and verified in different locations;
A nation-wide awareness campaign should be instigated to warn people of the harmful consequences of injudicious use of scientific technical knowledge;
The existing policies and strategies of Govt. & Ngos should be changed to emphasise sustainable issues and the value of centuries-old indigenous practices.