The relevance of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) in agricultural sustainability of the semi-arid tropics

Abstract

Boosting the agricultural production to feed the increasing world population and at the same time managing the ecosystem sustainability is the greatest challenge that the scientists, farming community and the policy makers face in the present scenario. Strategies to maintain and improve agricultural production via input of synthetic chemicals have already raised questions in their long term environmental implications. In the past two decades agricultural activities have witnessed higher inputs of chemicals due to government policies to promote chemical fertilisers and farmer's greed to have higher yields in short term. Consequently, the resource scarce farmers are giving up their indigenous knowledge of natural farming practices which can sustain them and the agro-ecosystems in the long run. Agro-ecosystem management strategies based on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) are gaining importance due to their better adaptability and sustainability. TEK is the knowledge database and adapted practices of indigenous and local communities around the world. World over, especially in India, there is enormous wealth of TEK but it is being lost and is surviving only in bits and pieces. The present chapter deals with the relevance of these TEK based systems in dealing with the issues of better soil management and achieving overall goal for agricultural sustainability.