Climate Change Responsive Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Crop Farming in Albay Province, Philippines

Abstract

Identifying, documenting and analyzing indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in crop farming can help develop sustainable technologies since those IKS have evolved through the test of time involving several generations of farmers that made the communities survive. This study was conceptualized and conducted under such context. This qualitative and descriptive study involved the most senior and longtime farmers in the study sites as sources of information. Focus group discussion (FGD) was the method used in data and information gathering. Participants were purposively sampled from farming communities in Albay where indigenous practices still exist to some extent. Indigenous practices in farming that are responsive to climate change adaptation have been identified. Mulching, coconut leaf pruning in coco-based vegetable farms, use of coconut fronds as windbreaks, collapsing of trellis and bending of young plants towards the ground as protection from typhoon, rainwater harvesting and use of plant sap to water crops during rainless months and minimum tillage were the climate change adaptive IKS identified. These indigenous practices can be studied for possible adoption as climate change adaptation mechanisms.