Indigenous Technical Knowledge System Followed By Tribal Farmers in Kolli Hills of Tamilnadu

Abstract

Indigenous technical knowledge adverts to the knowledge of native people in addition to any other defined community. It is derived from the direct experience of tribals and which is limited to a particular place / location but its sustainability in other localities is not known. This has been collected by the tribals over generations by monitoring and experimentation. The importance now being given to such indigenous cultivation practices is due to close relationship with certain environmental conditions and are based on local societies’ familiar knowledge of their surroundings. This study was conducted in 5 tribal villages in kolli hills of Namakkal district in Tamilnadu. In this study knowledge level of the Tribal farmer were analyzed regarding indigenous paddy cultivation practices. The result on knowledge level of the respondents shows that slightly half of the samples (56.67 per cent) had moderate level of knowledge and regarding practisewise knowledge level, the whole population had knowledge on Exposure of paddy seeds to sunlight for 4-5 days, Application of farm yard manure, Draining water next day of sowing, Maintaining water level for next few days after transplanting, exposure of harvested crop bundled to sunlight for one or two days in the field.