Indigenous Technical knowledge and farming in dry rain fed areas

Nepal is diversity rich country; diversity in people, culture, tradition, knowledge, lifestyle; diversity in flora, fauna; resources and mainly the Agrobiodiversity: Diversity on that Agriculture on which the country’s 80% households and 66% labor force depends as source of income (IFAD 2018). But the status of farms and those farmers is very low. Resource poor condition, dependency on nature other than external inputs, unpredictable disasters, incidence of new disease and pests etc. have made farming a subsistence business and in some cases it is not even enough to feed the family as well. In Nepal 18.7% of the population live below the poverty line and about 31.2% of the population is multidimensionally poor (Nepal Development Update, 2020). And the major source of livelihood for such people is Agriculture. They farm mostly under rain fed conditions with minimum supply of inputs. Being financially weak and resource poor, they are unable to adopt new technology and invest on farms; get commercial fertilizer, pesticides etc. And in most cases they are farming because they are jobless and their ancestors used to farm. Such farmers lack basic farming knowledge and skill as well.

Before the 1950s there was no use of chemicals in farms of Nepal. But the productions in some of the farms were quite satisfactory at that period as well. There was no mechanization and the infrastructure development was also less. But the farmers had developed some of the techniques that were beneficial to support their farms. Over the period such techniques evolved in some places and were replaced by modern technology in some farms. Modern technology is very efficient and productive but is very expensive. But there are still options for such poor technology that never gets old and is cost efficient or can be generated locally. From ancient times the local people have gone through different experimentation and developed many advances in farming through available local resources and collection of such knowledge is what we call indigenous technical knowledge.

Farming in dry rain fed farms has always remained a challenge and also compulsion for farmers. Out of 2.6 million ha of agricultural land only 1.8 million ha is irrigated. Farmers have to depend upon rain for irrigation. In such conditions we have some indigenous technical specialties that can help the farmers to do better in farming. Some of the indigenous technical ideas related to dryland rain fed farming are as below.

1. Water Conservation practices:
• Rain water harvest: Harvesting the seasonal rain in tanks, ponds etc. can make the water available for the rest of the seasons. Harvesting roof water in tanks and even in ponds is quite a popular practice. Excavated ponds in terai and embankment ponds in hilly areas help to collect and store the excess rain water.
• Conservation through trenches: Making of many small trenches over slopes of mountain and hills help to stop the excess rain water to get collected and percolate inside which will charge the groundwater level and help to conserve moisture over the areas. Such activity also helps conserve the natural springs as well. So, farming becomes easy with ground water.
• Mulching of crops with natural mulch: Mulching of the crop with natural mulch (straw, hay, leaves etc.) prevents the direct rays of sun from heating the water surface and preserves moisture for a longer period. It also increases the microorganism activity making the soil more fertile.
• Inter row water harvesting: Ridges and furrows are made on cultivated areas and plants are planted in ridges in heavy soil and in furrows in sandy soil. Doing such help to get occasional rain to be collected in furrows other than runoff and made available for a longer period to the root zone.
• Board beds and furrows: Board beds of 120-180cm breath are prepared and on which 3-4 rows of crops are planted. Excess rain is collected through the furrows in between the beds to nearby ponds and the collected water is used later.
• Inter plot water harvesting: This technique involves preparation of cropping plot along with fallow plot on its sides. The fallow plot is given a slide slope to induce runoff to the cropping plot. Fallow plot helps to collect the excess rain and makes it available to the cropped plot.
• Land levelling and bunding: Levelling and bunding of land prevents the loss of water through runoff.
  Terracing and contouring in hills. Terracing helps to collect rain water and prevent runoff. Contour planting made water available at uniform level to all the plants and prevented runoff.
2. Crop management practices:
• Selection of suitable varieties: Varieties that are tolerant to drought, high vigor should be selected. They should be dwarf with erect leaves and should be short duration varieties. Deeper roots with highly extensive branching can collect enough moisture. High photosynthetic efficiency and responsiveness to inputs should be the major characters. Local and indigenous plant selection which do better in water scarcity as well.
• Mono cropping with low plant density: In water scarce conditions mono cropping with low plant population can help to grow crops with minimum water. But the seed rate should be high as the germination in such drought conditions is very low. Thinning at a later stage to maintain plant population is done.
  Weeding: Periodic weeding as weeds also compete with moisture. Such weeds are retained as mulch after uprooting.
• Relay cropping: Relay cropping of various crops especially in winter is quite popular practice. It helps to utilize the previous moisture to the succeeding crops. Most popular crop as a relay is lentil, millet etc.

Farming with such indigenous technical knowledge is popular in many parts of the country but the farmers only know about one or two methods over a region. If they become able to know such various ITKs, the farming at less resource condition can be more productive. There are various modern techniques to farm under low water conditions like drip irrigation, subsurface irrigation, precision farming, under protected structure etc. But the financial and complexity aspect of such tech does not allow local farmers to adopt. So, it would be better if we conserve and adopt such ITKs which are cheap, eco friendly and sustainable as well. More research on such ITKs is also a future hope to produce a reliable and cost efficient technology at local level.