Member profile
Dr. Bongani Ncube
Organization:
Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Country:
South Africa
Field(s) of expertise:
I am working on:
1. Smallholder farmer livelihood strategies, coping and adaptation to drought
2. Indigenous knowledge in agriculture
3. Water resource management, access to agricultural water
4. Soil quality
5. Soil fertility management (exploring the benefits of zeolite as a soil conditioner)
Dr. Bongani Ncube
Dear Colleagues
It is good to see such a comprehensive collection of indigenous practices from across the world. My contribution is not necessarily on practices, because most of my research findings from the Karoo (South Africa) are already captured in this draft. I, however, have a few contributions/comments:
1. The South African case studies should also look at the following book:
Alcock, P.G., 2010. Rainbows in the Mist: Indigenous Weather Knowledge, Beliefs and Folklore in South Africa. Pretoria: South African Weather Service.
2. I think more work/discussion or debate is needed on how we define indigenous knowledge. The adopted definition portrays indigenous knowledge as an attribute of less technologically advanced societies, yet our findings in the Karoo show that IK also sits with commercial farmers, and this knowledge dates back to the 1700s. Yet, on the one hand, commercial farmers may not necessarily be seen as indigenous.
3. It is possible that IK is site or society specific in many instances, and may be defined by the history of a society/community. The question, therefore, is whether IK is transferable, in other words, can IK be adopted like we study the adoption of agricultural technologies? My challenge after collecting and documenting IK was how to translate and make it useful for the communities that we had studied, and the surrounding communities. There is need to translate IK into the local languages and to enable linkages between communities. We found a lot of very beneficial technologies, that farmers were using both in small-scale and commercial farming conditions. What is the best way of cross-pollinating the knowledge and making it relevant to all farmers? Is it possible to take IK out of one society and make it more relevant for other communities, for example, certain water conservation technologies? We should also realise that some IK is not transferable, for example, weather prediction indicators.
Lastly, how can we make IK part of the early warning systems? An Officer who had worked in the Karoo for more than 25 years told me in 2013 that it takes about 3 years for a drought to approach, and he accurately predicted the drought that followed. How can we integrate that kind of knowledge to scientific methods?
4. What place does IK hold in the current climate change debate? There is a lot of information documented on how communities cope and adapt, but where does that information fit into the bigger challenge of climate change.
5. This document is about addressing water scarcity in agriculture. I expect the last chapter of the report to synthesise some of those IK practices in agriculture that will make agricultural water more available or used more efficiently.