Local soil knowledge of smallholder rice farmers: A case study in Barak Valley, Assam

Abstract

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Smallholder farmers in traditional farming systems are an untapped source of traditional knowledge. They are the managers of well-preserved local soil knowledge and folk soil taxonomy. In the present study rice farmers in Barak Valley, South Assam, were inventorised for local soil knowledge in relation to rice farming systems. The rice farmers were interviewed for the prevalence of folk soil taxonomy and a total of five major soil types were recorded. Since smallholder farmers practice their farming systems under various environmental factors, they on the basis of their local knowledge of soil, etc. shape the crop diversity. The study revealed that the farmers are faced with heterogeneous soil types and hence they maintain systematic classification criteria for the nomenclature of different soils, which was found to be positively correlated to scientific analysis of the soils.

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