Indigenous technologies in the rice-based cropping system among tribals of eastern Madhya Pradesh, India

The indigenous techniques of a farming population are derived from their past farming experiences. Farmers worldwide have adopted their own systems of farming and this is within the framework of local possibilities and limitations of available resources. These ancient agro-technologies are still carried on, sometimes with slight modifications in many parts of the country. The eastern part of the largest province in India, Madhya Pradesh, is known for its ethnic values and varying culture. Among various domiciles of this region, scheduled tribes contribute more than 40%. This population is still far away from the modern world; even today, these people depend on agriculture. Traditional agro-practices are still followed and preserved in their natural form. In view of these facts, we attempted to study the knowledge and adoption pattern of indigenous techniques by tribal farmers under the rainfed rice-based cropping system. The findings mainly relied on primary data collected from 150 randomly selected tri al farm families of 10 villages from the two most tribal-dominated districts, Bastar and Surguja. Semistructured interview schedules in the local dialect were used for data collection. The findings revealed that about 40% of the respondents were illiterate; they belonged to a family with 5-10 members. Agriculture was the main occupation, but others engaged in forest produce collection and animal husbandry. Agriculture was the major source of income, followed by labor work. The study also revealed that traditional varieties occupied more than 60% of cultivated land. Similarly, a majority of the farmers also used several indigenous technologies from seed selection to storage of produce. Some of these technologies such as the use of locally made implements; sun drying; use of salt solution for selection of healthy seeds; operations for weed control; seed germination test; the use of mahua cake as biofertilizer, spray of kerosene or soil solution, and use of herbs/plants to control rice caseworm; the use of mud cow dung, and rice husks to make storage bins; and the use of neem leaves as insect repellant were popular among the tribals.