Local Knowledge of Farmer Communities in the Use of Organic Fertilizers to Increase Cashew Production in Buton Utara Regency, Southeast Sulawesi Province, Indonesia

Local knowledge has an important role in agricultural practices.This study aims to describe the local knowledge of farming communities about the use of organic fertilizers as a strategy to increase cashew production in Buton Utara Regency,Southeast Celebes,Indonesia.The research method used is a qualitative approach with data collection techniques using in-depth interviews and observation.The research results showed that the farming community in this area has in-depth local knowledge of how to make and apply effective organic fertilizers sourced from the surrounding natural environment.However,there are challenges in access to the organic materials needed and constraints in the widespread implementation of organic fertilizers.This study recommends strengthening education and training programs to increase farmers’awareness and skills in using organic fertilizers.

Community Based Flood Risk Management: Local Knowledge and Actor’s Involvement Approach from Lower Karnali River Basin of Nepal

Connecting to the disaster risk reduction (DRR) studies, community-based initiatives are found to be more effective in both developed and developing countries, with a specific focus on the empowerment of local communities to build resilience. Building on social capital theory, the paper investigates on local knowledge (LK) practices experienced by the actors in an emerging economy using the community-based flood risk management (CB-FRM) approach. The qualitative research method was used by collecting data from focused group discussions, and interviews with the key informants including actors from local governments and non-government organizations. Additionally, informal discussions, field visits, and desk studies were undertaken to support the findings. The findings reveal that the local communities carry out various local knowledge experiences to respond during disaster management phases. They own a creative set of approaches based on the LK and that empowers them to live in the flood-prone areas, accepting the paradigm shift from fighting with floods to living with that. The local actor’s involvement is recognized as an essential component for CB-FRM activities. Yet, their program’s implementation is more oriented towards humanitarian assistance in emergency responses. Even, they often overlook the role of LK. Additionally, the results show a high level of presence of local communities during the preparedness and recovery phases, while NGOs and local governments have a medium role in preparedness and low in recovery phase. The lack of local ownership has also emerged as the major challenge. The research provides valuable insights for integrated CB-FRM policies by adopting to LK practices.

“Listening to the Sounds of the Water”:Bringing Together Local Knowledge and Biophysical Data to Understand Climate-Related Hazard Dynamics

Integrating local knowledge and scientific information can aid in co-developing locally relevant approaches for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.Communities along the Mekong River have adapted to variability in temperature,rainfall,and flooding patterns over time.Rapid environmental change in the Mekong Basin presents a new set of challenges related to drought,altered seasonal rainfall,more frequent high-flow flood events,and water withdrawals for hydropower and irrigation.We present a multi-method approach to understand how local knowledge of the spatial and temporalpatterns of floods,droughts,and rainfall can be integrated with scientific information along a flood-prone section of the lower Mekong River in Kratie Province,Cambodia.Participatory hazard mapping of community members’knowledge of the movement of floodwaters through the landscape enabled interpretation of flood extent mapping using Synthetic Aperture Radar images from the Sentinel-1A satellite.Seasonal calendars of weather patterns and livelihood activities,together with local indicators of flooding,rainfall,and drought were compared with trends in 35 years of rainfall data,and highlighted"pressure points"at the beginning and end of the rainy season where agriculture may be particularly impacted by climate change.We discuss potential applications of our findings for adaptation and hazard planning.

Participatory Mapping and Visualization of Local Knowledge:An Example from Eberbach, Germany

A rise in the number of flood-affected people and areas has increased the interest in new methods and concepts that account for this change.Citizens are integrated into disaster risk reduction processes through participatory approaches and can provide valuable up-to-date local knowledge.During a field study in Eberbach(Baden–Wuerttemberg,Germany)sketch maps and questionnaires were used to capture local knowledge about flooding.Based on a previous study on urban flooding in Santiago de Chile,the tools were adapted and applied to river flooding in the city of Eberbach,which is regularly flooded by the Neckar River,a major river in southwest Germany.The empirical database of the study comprises 40 participants in the study area and 40 in a control area.Half of the participants in each group are residents and half are pedestrians.Purposive sampling was used,and the questionnaires aimed to gather demographic information and explore what factors,such as property,influence the risk perception of the study participants.The results show that residents identify a larger spatial area as at risk than pedestrians,and owning property leads to higher risk awareness.The flood type influenced the choice of the base maps for the sketch maps.For river flooding,one map with an overview of the area was sufficient,while for urban flooding a second map with more details of the area also enables the marking of small streets.The information gathered can complement authoritative data such as from flood models.This participatory approach also increases the communication and trust between local governments,researchers,and citizens.

Local Practices and Knowledge Associated with Date Palm Cultivation in Southeastern Niger

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.), a dioecious species, is of particular interest in the Sahel due to its phenological plasticity in relation to climate change and its double-flowering capacity. This article explores local practices and knowledge associated with date palm cultivation in the oasis basins of southeastern Niger, and provides an inventory of local seed propagated varieties, for more effectively guiding agricultural research and the breeding of this species. We carried out a survey of 30 date palm growers in 14 villages of the Manga region. The qualitative data of the survey were processed by a Multiple Correspondence Analysis. We inventoried 19 date palm varieties, for which the main distinctive criterion was fruit colour, but some other criteria such as biology or provenance were also used. The cultural practices and knowledge associated with the date palm in Manga have improved since the 1990s. They also depend on ethnic groups and the importance they assign to farming compared to livestock rearing and trading activities. The type of basin (high, intermediate, or low water table) influences growers’ practices and perceptions. Lastly, the date harvest in the wet season is abundant, but of mediocre quality, whereas it is the opposite for the dry season harvest. To conclude, sustainable development of date palm cultivation in the Sahel zone relies firstly on the selection of varieties that are early fruit producers or that can complete fruit maturation during the raining season and secondly on technical capacity building for producers.

Community Perception of Riparian Corridors Ecosystem Services and Implications for Environmental Education in Upper Oueme Catchment in Benin, West Africa

The assessment of the local community perception of the value of riparian corridors is relevant to understand their attitude towards the conservation of such ecosystem. We conducted a semi-structured survey on the perception and importance attributed to the ecosystem services (ESs) provided by riparian corridors in 368 households across 70 villages located in a buffer zone of 5 km of servitude around the permanent rivers of the Upper Oueme watershed in Benin. We found that local communities easily reported provisioning and cultural ESs than regulating and supporting ones, indicating their misunderstanding of the main role of riparian corridor. Moreover, the supply of cropping areas was perceived as the most important ES. Educated respondents and high-income households had more knowledge of regulating ESs and supporting ESs, respectively. Overall, the highly perceived importance of the provision of cropping areas indicates a potential risk of agricultural encroachment of riparian corridors. We suggest the consideration of the current local perception of riparian corridor’s role in designing a sound environmental education aiming at the change of local population’s perception. This perception shift will promote a sustainable management of the riparian corridors.

Socioenvironmental Drivers of Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Change Risk in Agroforestry Parklands of West Atacora in Benin (West Africa)

Throughout the world, climate change is threatening the human population. In West Africa, smallholder farmers in indigenous agricultural societies typically hold considerable knowledge. Therefore, this study was conducted in West Atacora of Benin Republic to assess the drivers of farmers’ perceptions of climate change risk. We used a random sampling technique to select 360 households’ heads who were interviewed regarding different climate change risks perception. Binomial logistic regression was used to assess the drivers of farmers’ perceptions of climate change risks. The results showed that the farmers in drier areas had a higher perception of the global risk of climate change than those in humid areas. The same trend was observed for the seven different individual’s climate change risk investigated. The study identified also membership of farm organizations as main sociodemographic characteristic that explains farmers’ perception of climate change risk perception. These findings are helpful tools to sensitize the local people on climate change risk and cope with the risk in agricultural lands.

Ethnoedaphology as an Integrating Process between Academy and Peasant Knowledge in the Productive System of Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) of Southwestern Colombia

Community knowledge about agricultural land and its management constitutes a complex system of wisdom, with universal principles and categories similar or complementary to those used by modern soil science. However, soil management is only recognized from the point of view of agronomy and academia, covering problems in rural areas at the time of adopting agricultural alternatives. For this reason, peasant knowledge was characterized and related to scientific knowledge, in the valuation of land properties in the coffee (Coffea arabica L.) production system. The study was carried out in four villages in the municipality of Buesaco (Nari?o, Colombia), with humid pre-mountain forest conditions, an average temperature of 18?C, annual rainfall of 1400 mm, and an altitude of 1959 m. The study was carried out in the municipality of Buesaco (Nari?o, Colombia). Through field visits, priority was given to farms with coffee production systems under different types of shade. A semi-structured survey was applied to learn about the social, environmental, productive, ancestral, and cultural components, with the application of participatory methodologies allowed to learn about traditional management and practices in the soil component. The results allowed us to identify four types of production systems from coffee without shade to coffee in association with different multipurpose woody perennials and mosses. Diverse dynamics of crop and land management are presented. Several references were found to differentiate land types such as color, texture, production and fertility, being characteristics that are associated to classify soil quality and make management decisions and type of fertilization. Through the perception of the farmers, six land classes with different characteristics were identified, relating the characterization with what was obtained in the chemical analysis of lands. It can be concluded that the perception of coffee growers, dark shades in the land representing better quality than light shaded soils, both associated with characteristics such as quantity of organic matter, presence of weeds, growth and development of the crop, perceptions that coincide with the variables of scientific knowledge such as availability of nutrients, organic matter, pH and texture.

Disaster Management in Nepalese Context:An Ecological Perspective

This paper attempts to identify major natural hazards and disaster incidents damage and losses in Nepal.Using participatory and geographical diversity approach and for collecting information,multi-criteria decision making methods and analytical hierarchic process to identify the hazard prone area with type and intensity and location-specific innovative practices and their legitimization for integrating local knowledge and skills into mainstream development policy,science and technology through educational assessment to incorporate local knowledge as live science for disaster management,climate change adaptation and sustainable livelihood improvement.Findings of the study reveal that their variety of natural hazards,such as landslides,flood/inundation,droughts,soil erosion,earthquakes,thunderstorm/lightening and fire are exacerbated by environmental degradation processes.There are location specific local practices for resource conservation,utilization and disaster management for the well-being of communities before,during and after disasters.Such practices passed on from one generation to the next without being integrated into mainstream development strategies,disaster policy and science.Knowledge of ecology and local skills and materials for hazard prevention and mitigation have the important role to mitigate the hazards and ensure the sustainability for community life style.Moreover,this study proposed an action-oriented model i.e.political-ecological framework of the environmental resource conservation,disaster management and climate change adaptation practices in mostly vulnerable locations of Nepal.Moreover,measures are suggested to enhance the community capacity for managing their livelihood resources and are hindrance to policy making and scientific advancement at the community level with proper integration of local knowledge with science and mainstream development policy.

Closing the Gaps in Disaster Management and Response:Drawing on Local Experiences with Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani,Zimbabwe

Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe exposed deficiencies in the country's disaster management system.This study uses a phenomenological case exploration of the experiences of local residents in Rusitu Valley following cyclone-induced floods that affected the area in March 2019.Through capturing narratives of participants who were recruited through chain referrals,the research intends to understand how local actors,utilizing their local-based response systems,managed to fill in the voids that characterize disaster management practice in Zimbabwe.Results show that the participation of local"heroes"and"Samaritans,"by deploying their social networks,norms,relationships,practices,and modest ingenuity,helped to speed up response times and minimize threats to lives and livelihoods.Documentation of the stories of local actors about their disaster experiences also gives a richer picture of the Cyclone Idai disaster.Although the community response system also facilitated the operation of external disaster management agencies,their premature withdrawal tended to weaken the trust and values existing in the area,and created tensions between the disaster-affected people and other villagers.Given the delays in formal responses by the government and other external relief agencies,the practices of local actors,although spontaneous and largely uncoordinated,offer rich insights into the design and development of disaster management regimes.