This thesis presents findings of a research that involved incorporation of farmers' local knowledge in participatory development of soil and water management interventions to minimise soil and nutrient losses from the middle hills of Nepal. A knowledge-based systems approach was used in elicitation, storage and analysis of local knowledge. The approach used concepts and methods adapted from the field of anthropology and ethnography combined with features from the field of artificial intelligence. The distribution patterns of local knowledge were tested in sixteen villages located in eight hill districts of the region. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select
384 sample households. Three ecological factors - altitude, rainfall and terrace domain; and two socio-economic factors - food self-sufficiency and gender were used to stratify the population; and ethnicity, education and age of respondents were included during the analysis stage.
The results showed that farmers possessed sophisticated and detailed explanatory knowledge about soil and water management, many of which were comparable with scientific knowledge. They also lacked knowledge, especially about interactions and processes that were difficult to observe, experience and that took place below ground.
The distribution of knowledge amongst farmers was affected by their ecological
environments and socioeconomic conditions. The effect of ecological factors on the distribution of local knowledge was lower than socio-economic factors. The broad conceptual understandings of soil and water management processes were widely held, while more detailed knowledge about processes involving complex interaction and about attributes affecting such interactions tended to vary depending on farmers' experience with such processes and interactions.
The key features of the participatory technology development approach adopted in the
present research were: incorporation of farmers' knowledge in technology development process and facilitation of farmer experimentation. The knowledge analysis revealed knowledge gaps between farmers and scientists, differentiated knowledge from practices, identified reasons for use and non-use of knowledge into practice, and indicated potential intervention options for research and development for new soil and water management interventions. Sharing scientific knowledge motivated farmers to experiment with new soil and water management practices traditionally not accepted and appreciated, and research support and facilitation from scientists strengthened farmers' capacity to undertake new research initiatives. This farmer-scientist
collaboration and partnership, however, required long-term engagement.
A multiple approach to monitoring and evaluation of the participatory technology development process was used to suit the participatory and flexible nature of the process. Participation of farmers and all the other stakeholders in monitoring and evaluation of farmers' experiments was the key feature of the approach. The quantitative methods used by scientist were simple and non-interfering with farmers' activities with added advantage of demonstration effects. Experience of farmers' self monitoring and evaluation of their experiments using their own criteria and indicators are discussed.
The initial results showed that participatory technology development process involving farmer experimentation was more effective than conventional on-farm research in dissemination of new information and technologies to other farmers in the community.