The Utility of the Nigerian Peasant Farmer's Knowledge in the Monitoring of Agricultural Resources: A General Report - MARC Report Number 4

The present report focuses on the first of these two issues. It attempts to investigate the scope, content and structure of farmers' knowledge concerning local environments. How, for example, are problems like drought, pests, weeds and soil erosion accounted for? How accurate is this knowledge, howls it acquired and handed on and to what extent is the distribution of useful knowledge within peasant societies correlated with variations in material and social status? Not all these questions have been answered in sufficient detail but we believe enough progress is apparent to justify further specific and comparative investigations. The second issue - meshing together the informal discoveries of the farmer with the formal investigations of organized science for monitoring purposes - requires the setting up and evaluation of specific experimental projects. This stage has not yet been reached. The report concludes, however, with an attempt to delineate the necessary kinds of pilot studies.