Indigenous Soil Fertility Maintenance and Pest Control Practices in Traditional Agriculture in the Indian Central Himalaya

In the Indian Central Himalaya, agriculture is the major source of livelihood for native societies as well as being a fundamental component of natural resource management. However, the system is traditional in nature, based on largely rainfed agriculture, which is dependent upon indigenous technologies and inputs for its continuity. Soil fertility and pest control, two major components of this traditional agriculture, are also maintained indigenously. A survey covering about 500 farm households in 12 villages spread across six districts in the Indian Central Himalaya revealed farmers' almost total dependency on a number of indigenous practices of soil fertility maintenance and insecticidal practices, which are documented in this paper. The majority of these indigenous practices are highly dependent on local resources, particularly on forests, whose depletion has posed a serious challenge. This challenge could be mitigated to a large extent by appropriate changes in forest policies and by integrating indigenous practices with appropriate technologies developed within the agricultural research system.