Integration of Indigenous Knowledge of Sustainable Agricultural Systems

1996 Annual Report for LNC96-107

Project Type: Research and Education
Funds awarded in 1996: $15,000.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/1998
Matching Federal Funds: $15,000.00
Matching Non-Federal Funds: $15,580.00
Region: North Central
State: Iowa
Project Coordinator:
Dr. Cornelia Butler Flora
Iowa State University

Integration of Indigenous Knowledge of Sustainable Agricultural Systems

Summary

Advocates of sustainable agriculture now recognize farmers as important repositories of alternative knowledge acquired through cumulative experience. The North Central Region SARE program has awarded nearly 300 grants to farmers in the North Central region since it initiated its Producer Grants Program in 1992. Grant recipients have generated and accumulated a store of experiential/alternative agriculture knowledge from their activities, which can serve both current and future communities of farmers shifting from standard to sustainable alternative systems of farming. The study examines how the local knowledge generated from farmer experience moves to wider social contexts for sharing and dissemination.

Farmer collaborative inquiry with researchers is at the heart of the SARE Producer Grant innovative initiative. Understanding the outputs and outcomes of different patterns of collaboration between farmers and researchers can enhance the development of strategic collaborative partnerships at the local level that "work" in reaching farmers' goals and resonating with their interests.

Results of the qualitative thematic analyses of 68 reports of SARE grant recipients show:

The driving force behind SARE farmer local actions and farming practices fall into three distinct but overlapping categories or values: economic viability, environmental stewardship and social sustainability.
SARE farmer researchers' reports show innovative practices and alternatives, such as management intensive rotational grazing, integrated pest management and nutrient recycling through creative manure management strategies, are being tested and adopted in the North Central region production systems.
SARE farmer researchers' see the Producer Grant Program as a strategic risk insurance that provides a measure of financial support as they test non-traditional innovative technologies, while shifting from a conventional technology treadmill to an alternative approach to agricultural production.

Institutional collaboration and different patterns of participation with farmers appear in the reports less often as conduits for knowledge transfer than as intellectual/cognitive spaces for selectively melding knowledge from multiple arenas to fit specific contexts and special needs. Four models of collaboration and participation are identified in SARE farmers' reports. SARE farmer researchers also identify various avenues of communication, sharing and dissemination of their local experiential knowledge. These include field days, pasture walks, sustainable agriculture organization newsletters, workshops and community newspapers.

An important implication emanating from the interpretive analyses of SARE farmers' reports is that there may be greater space in the agricultural landscape for an alternative approach to agricultural production to expand than has been hitherto realized. The study suggests that for any alternative approach to influence cognitive changes on farm, system-wide changes are required that support individual innovation and creativity. It further challenges public institutions to effectively support changing and emergent values among farmers to sustain that innovative and creative synergy at the farm level.

For more information:
Cornelia Butler Flora
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
108 Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
515-294-8321
515-294-2303 (fax)
cflora@iastate.edu