Tanzania: Communicating local farming knowledge
/
2001
Abstract:
IK Notes reports on a project where local knowledge collection, documentation and dissemination is done in collaboration with local farmers in order to ensure that it is accessible, context specific and relevant. Their specific aim is to support the use of natural crop protection (NCP) in the Ulanga Mountains region, Tanzania. In the two main challenges faced were: - knowledge of NCP is limited to only a few members of the community and also because the communities have no alternatives.
- The belief among young and better off farmers that botanical pesticides are there to be used by old and poor farmers who cannot afford chemicals
Therefore, to ensure effective dissemination of local knowledge the project worked closely with local farmers to develop posters relating to the use of botanical pesticides. The paper describes in detail the steps taken in poster development: - Accessing the know-how of the innovation
- Defining communication needs
- Targeting the audience
- Visualisation and production of artwork
- Field testing
- Farmer-to-farmer dissemination
The report concludes with lessons learned: - The testing of the posters and training material on farmers was crucial and valuable.
- Involving the target audience from the get-go proved to be useful.
- The use of local artists is crucial because it fully reflected local people, images, tools, activities, responses and environment.
- Dissemination of the local knowledge using modern methods added value to the knowledge
- The partnership of farmers with the project has several positive spill-over effects.
[ FullText ] | [ Home ]
|
