Traditional knowledge adopted by the farmers for management of rice pests in North bank plain zone of Assam

Abstract

Indigenous technical knowledge (ITK) is the accumulated skill, technology of a locality or a community and has been passed on from one generation to another generation. There is wide spread revival of studies on indigenous knowledge system with different synonyms. The present study is an effort to gather indigenous technical knowledge that are being followed by farmers of North bank plain zone of Assam, constituted of four districts, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">viz.</i> Sonitpur, North Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Mangaldoi district. The data were collected through both personal interview method and participatory techniques. The study revealed that many of the indigenous practices are still in vogue and meet the farmers’ needs in minimizing risks in rain-fed situations. A total of 21 indigenous practices were identified which were practiced by different proportion of farmers for management of rice pests. Out of these, 17 practices were used by the respondent farmers for control of pests in the rice field and 4 practices were found to be used by them for control of storage pests in rice. The percentage of farmers practicing different ITKs ranged from 22.50% to 79.38 %. Identification of scientifically sound indigenous practices will be helpful to the scientists in technology blending programme and in generation of low-cost, location-specific and appropriate technology.