Attainment of agricultural sustainability through integration of traditional knowledge of farmers and scientific knowledge of researchers

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Amartya Sen has said “Development should be a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy, in other words giving them the opportunities and choices that will enable them to take control of their own lives. So, it is not a case of talking about people or on their behalf; rather, the role of development policy is to help them articulate and assert their own interests and rights”. Indigenous knowledge is considered as the social capital of the poor. It is their main asset to invest in the struggle for survival, to produce food, to provide for shelter and to achieve control of their own lives. ITK is the knowledge that people in a given community has developed over time and continues to develop it. It is based on experience, often tested over long period of time, adapted to local culture and environment, dynamic and changing and lay emphasis on minimizing risks rather than maximizing profits. Traditional knowledge is vital for sustainability of natural resources including forests, water, and agro-ecosystems across landscape. The practitioners of traditional knowledge tend to view people, animal, plants, and other elements of the universe as interconnected by a network of social relations and obligations. They have recognized that the wellbeing of human society is closely related to the wellbeing of natural ecosystems. Community knowledge includes scientific knowledge that is the basis of industrial development and traditional knowledge and both have separately contributed in their own way towards the process of development of mankind. Industrialized societies rely mainly on scientific knowledge whereas others are rich in traditional knowledge. A blend of modern and indigenous knowledge and practices will be imperative for environment friendly, need based, and location specific, technically sound, socially acceptable, economically viable and ecologically sustainable agricultural technologies. Hence, there is a need to plan and formulate strategies to integrate the indigenous traditional knowledge of farmers and the modern scientific knowledge of scientists from the research stations which will be effective in bringing out the aims of sustainability.