Identification of Indigenous Technical Knowledges (ITKs) as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technology

Abstract

Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) is the rural people’s basic knowledge that provides sufficient information for the decision-making of the small and marginal farmers that helps in social upliftment. The focus of the study was to identify Indigenous Technical Knowledges (ITKs) as Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) technology. The study was conducted in three unions of Chitalmari upazila under Bagerhat district with purposively selected 110 respondents and data were collected from the sampled respondents through personal interview using an interview schedule from 9ᵗʰ March, 2023 to 18ᵗʰ March, 2023. Majority (53.6%) of the respondents were in the medium use category of ITKs. The respondent farmers of the study used fifty-one ITKs to different extent. However, ‘Soaking vegetable seeds in water for better germination’ was used to the highest extent (90.30%) followed by ‘Feeding molasses and table salt to cattle. On the other hand, ‘A mixture of catechu and haritaki extract in the water to protect fertilized eggs from damage’ was used to the lowest extent (1.82%). The articulation of the selected ITKs clearly indicated their benefits scientifically and suitability of used as CSA technology. Knowledge of ITKs’ had a significant positive correlation with the use of ITKs. Farmers had severe problems regarding use of ITKs (79.1%) and ‘Preference of farmers for sophistication with reliance on readymade inputs’ ranked 1ˢᵗ among the identified 15 problems. Farmers perceived that the suitability of ITK-related solutions was medium and 1ˢᵗ position was ranked by the solution against ITK related problems ‘ITKs should be used combined with environment-friendly modern techniques to get solutions of almost all situations.’ So, the adoption of ITKs as CSA technology is very crucial to overcome the challenges of the climate-changing world.