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The area of biodiversity conservation has emerged as one of the most significant issues facing developing countries. The global community is giving due consideration to the preservation and conservation of biodiversity, particularly in the biogenetic resource-rich developing countries like Pakistan. Indigenous knowledge of sustainable agriculture refers to the traditional initiatives of farming communities. It can play a key role in the design of sustainable use of biodiversity and sustainable agricultural systems in which rural populations develop and maintain innovations and interventions through their own experiences. In most parts of our ecosystems in the past, local farmers have been in perfect harmony with nature and have substantially contributed to the conservation of the richness of their agrobiodiversity. This harmony includes growing of heterogeneous crops together with livestock and use of on-farm natural resources to enhance the fertility of soils and contend with crop pests. Traditional agriculture was about real life activities and the pleasure of living, enjoying and growing up with all the entities around us, visible or invisible. Agriculture was not a factory or industry. It was not merely a sector of food production. Agriculture was a way of life, a cultural practice with all the implications of the word “culture”. An example of unique biodiversity-use is indigenous knowledge of natural pesticide development. There are numerous plant ingredients highly toxic to a wide spectrum of pests, but most of them are less toxic or nontoxic to mammals and humans. Unlike synthetic pesticides, these ingredients degrade into soil and fertilize it instead of polluting. The plant ingredients can safely be used for pest control. History shows that the indigenous knowledge of natural pesticide development is ancient and some insecticides of plant origin have been in use for a long time. For instance, pyrethrum, obtained from chrysanthemum sp., was known during the time of Persian King Darius in 486 to 521 BC. Nicotine and derris (rotenone) were in use for centuries. A tropical evergreen tree, the neem, has been used for ages in South Asia for its pesticide-like qualities. Neem contains azadirachtin, one of the most powerful insect repellents ever discovered.
Listed here are some examples of indigenous knowledge that help control pests and improve yields: planting maize, beans and pumpkin together helps. Yield of each crop increases much more than when the crops are grown separately. It also reduces pest population, improves soil condition and increases beneficial insects; planting garlic around fruit trees helps to control soil pests and crawling insectsmixed cropping – considering the color, odor, leaf structure and time of maturity of planting crops -- aids to control pest problems; farmers who do not tilt the soil, do not harvest crops at the time of a new moon and seven days thereafter reduce soil and post harvest and storage pests.
In the age of modern technology, agricultural practices have eliminated or substantially reduced indigenous use of biodiversity that was necessary for sustainable agricultural production – that is agriculture, which does not harm human health and the environment. On the one hand, the cost of inputs has increased and on the other, people are bearing the new costs of ecological impacts and unsustainable agriculture.
South Asian Network on Food, Ecology and Culture (SANFEC), consisting of partner organizations from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, attempts to promote indigenous knowledge of organic agriculture through sharing farmers’ experiences. SANFEC members have developed biodiversity based organic farming models for rice based farming systems in Bangladesh, hill-farming systems in Nepal and dryland areas of India.
Nepal, Bangladesh and India under their projects on the Integrated Community Development Program for Natural Pesticide Development have identified numerous local plants that different communities have used to control their pest problems. All these natural pesticides are being used in their project areas. It is recommended that Pakistan should adopt the same methods for registering information of the indigenous use of plant ingredients for a sustainable pest management system.
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