Tradition unbound

New efforts to stop hungerand save biodiversity

LUVE, Swaziland – When Flora Shongwe Lamatsebula, an elderly farmer, invites her grandchildren

for dinner, she has a couple of fussy eaters on her hands. “If I prepare traditional dishes, they don’t want

them,” she laments. “So there are two pots on the stove, one for me – I don’t eat cooking oil and packaged

soups – and one for them.”

A revolution in diet is sweeping this southern African country, and causing health problems.

“We are seeing a rise in hypertension and sugar diabetes,” says Nikiwe Dlamini, a government home

economist. “People have turned away from indigenous food and now are eating fast food. Rural people

are buying packaged food in town, such as

canned fish, corned beef, packaged soups,

chicken stock and soft drinks.”

FIGHTING BACK. The Swazi Ministry of Agriculture is

fighting the trend. On this bright autumn day in the village

community centre, home economists and extension

workers are field testing a questionnaire on traditional food

crops, their preparation and qualities. Ms Lamatsebula and

other farmers enthusiastically describe the properties of a

long list of traditional beans, peas, nuts, cereals and

pumpkins, foods that they have cooked in the traditional

way for a hearty group lunch.

“We are cataloguing this knowledge and

trying to find out how we can instil it in the

population again and especially how we can

save and multiply the seeds – they are

disappearing,” says Simeon Nxumalo, the

extension worker who led the focus group.

The initiative is timely since at least 40

percent of Swazis – those living with the

AIDS virus – need wholesome traditional

foods more than ever. Nutritionists say such

foods are the first medicine for those with

the disease.

NO SEED, NO CROP. Zodwa Mamba, a ministry agronomist

working in another part of the country, specializes in

legumes, the classic sustainer of the poor. “I was looking for

improved varieties and tolerance to disease, to help farmers

increase yields,” she recalls. “But by 1992, acreage was

going down and with severe drought, the farmers were

eating even the seeds. Seed companies said it wasn’t worth

it for them to multiply legume seeds since farmers don’t

buy from them regularly.”

Why gender, biodiversity andlocal knowledge go together

MALKERNS RESEARCH STATION, Swaziland – Despite years

of experience as curator of the national Gene Bank,

repository of 850 plant or seed samples of mainly

indigenous food crops, Thandi Lupupa learned

something new about seeds recently.

At a LinKS workshop, Ms Lupupa found out about

women’s role in selecting maize seed, even though, as

a cash crop, maize is considered a man’s preserve.

“It was an eye opener to me that gender was also

important,” she says. “I had been concentrating on

indigenous knowledge and

biodiversity.”

“It turns out that women

go through the maize field

before the harvest to

choose the seeds they want,

whereas men just want to

harvest the whole crop in a

hurry. I thought women just

concentrated on legumes.

“So now I talk to women

when I want to collect maize

seeds,” she concludes.

Throughout the three countries covered in this booklet,

similar stories were heard illustrating the close

relationship between gender, biodiversity and local

knowledge. Tanzanian LinKS coordinator Sachin Das

adds: “In our ministries, we have taken the different

roles of men and women into account before, we are

aware of indigenous knowledge and, since the Rio

Summit, we have programmes on biodiversity, but this

is the first time we have put the three together.”

New ways of savingHelping countries to rescue traditional foods and crops

Thandi Lupupa, Gene Bank curator, removes seed sample

from storage freezer.

In many developing countries the local knowledge ofmillions of small-scale farmers andherders is not treated as a genuine

national resource. Programmesthat support production-orientedagriculture and cash crops take

precedence over programmes tocapitalize on, for example, local cures

for livestock diseases, local seedvarieties, women’s role in seed management orindigenous systems for managing natural resources.

Since 1998, the LinKS (Local indigenous KnowledgeSystems) project, executed by FAO’s Gender andPopulation Division with US$4 million provided byNorway, has worked with strategic partners inMozambique and the United Republic of Tanzania and,since 2000, in Swaziland, to change that situation.

Far from being utilized by governments, localagricultural knowledge and traditional seed, welladapted to often harsh local conditions, are actuallybeing lost. The trend leaves small-scale farmers andherders increasingly vulnerable to hunger and poverty.In response, LinKS sponsors three main activities –training, research and communication – to strengthenthe position of extensionists, researchers and policy-makers, some of whom are profiled in these pages.These professionals are well placed to promote theintegration of the traditional sector and its accumulatedwisdom with modern policy and practice. As theintellectual foundation for this hoped-for development,LinKS promotes understanding of the linkages betweenlocal knowledge systems, gender roles andrelationships, food security and the conservation andmanagement of biodiversity.

This booklet, the result of an FAO Information Divisionphoto-reportage mission in May 2004, is one of aseries on the Organization’s field programme. Seeback cover for other titles.

Ms Mamba began encouraging farmers to form seed

associations to multiply seed for local sale.

Rebecca Ntondo Shabangu, one of nine members of

one such association, says its seeds are popular: “We

can’t meet the demand, especially for one local variety of

groundnut. Last year we had more than 50 customers and

sold 70 kilos of seed.”

Ms Mamba, one of 25 participants invited to the

inaugural LinKS workshop in Swaziland, has since received

project funding for a seed production study. “LinKS training

was very, very useful,” she says. “I’ve now changed my

research methodology to a more participatory approach

and am getting better results. I learned I shouldn’t just

impose what I know. The farmers had lots of knowledge that

was new to me. If you just come with a list of questions, the

farmers tell you anything just to get it over with.”

She adds that current trends favour more productive

hybrid seed instead of open-pollinated seed, which is often

all the poor can afford to grow, and export instead of

subsistence crops. “Those with big food security problems

are in danger of being left behind,” she concludes.

What is LinKS?

the old ways

“If you just come with a list

of questions, the farmers tell you

anything just to get it over with.”

Zodwa Mamba - agronomist

▼

Cataloging the cooking qualities of

traditional food crops in Luve, Swaziland (right)

while a student orders fast food in a nearby town (below).

MASSAVASSE, Mozambique – In this typical farming community in southern Mozambique,

farmer after farmer speaks of favourite local seed varieties lost to flood and drought, and of family life

torn apart by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Experts fear that the loss of farming know-how and traditional seed

is putting into jeopardy the very future of the only livelihood most Mozambicans have.

“Yes, it’s true. I have lost a lot of seed,” says Antonio Nhabanga, indicating how high the flood waters

reached in 2000 by pointing to the top of his

house. “Two rice varieties we had adapted to this

area that needed only water to grow well are

gone.” His wife, Berta, adds: “We had a type of

bean that was very productive. And we had a

yellow maize that we loved very much because it

was resistant to drought. All gone.”

FAMILIES AFFECTED BY THE EPIDEMIC – an estimated

22 percent of people in the district have the AIDS virus – are

finding it difficult not only to grow enough food for survival,

but also to pass on their farming know-how to their

children.

A study undertaken by FAO’s LinKS project in

Massavasse and two other communities documents this

trend: almost all the interviewees cited parents or other

close relatives as the

continuing key source of

learning on farming and

seed. Knowledge loss about

local varieties was already

evident: 25, 27 and 33

percent of younger adults

interviewed could not name

any local variety of ground-

nuts, pumpkin or cassava

respectively, compared to

only 12, 10 and 19 percent of

elders.

DOWNWARD SPIRAL. “When the children are here on

school holidays, they go to the field and learn farming by

doing, not regular training,” confirms Johana Alfredo

Ubisse, 43, a farmer who is ill with HIV/AIDS. “I can’t vouch

for their level of farming knowledge.”

“Since I have been sick I am not personally able to go to

the field,” he says. “My wife is doing her best by herself. The

difficult part is preparing the fields for planting. Ploughing

with animals is a man’s job – so she is breaking the ground

by hand. Production is going down.”

“We depend on agriculture for all our income so we are

having serious problems getting enough to eat,” he adds.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic shows few signs of abating,

according to Luis Maxinho Baloi, traditional leader of

Maxinhe, a rural community of 500 households in which 115

orphans were reported to the local health clinic between

2000 and 2003.

“The number of infections is increasing, even in

children,” he says in front of his house in the village founded

by his father. “The main activity here is agriculture. If the

family is dying, then the seeds are dying too.”

Traditional ways

▼

The clinic in Massavasse (left),

a community hit hard by HIV/AIDS

and drought.

Rameca Mungwe shows her daughter

Veronica how to select the best maize

seeds (top).

What disasters cost farming in know-how and seed

A WIDOW’S STORY. Rameca Mungwe, 44, sits on a mat in

front of her house in Maxinhe, dressed in black clothes and

scarf, in contrast to the vibrant African colours worn by her

neighbours. She is in mourning for her husband, who died

two weeks before of HIV/AIDS. Her story is a typical one:

“My agriculture is very traditional. I work with a hoe and

my basic seeds are maize, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beans

– several types – and some vegetables like tomatoes. I know

how to select and keep seeds from previous years. Because

of the drought, the children were hungry and crying and I

had to cook the seeds for them to eat.

“My three children come with me to the field. I need

their help and that is how I teach them. Although since I got

ill I go very little to the field. But I still believe strongly that

my daughter can be a good farmer some day.”

under threat

Seed fairs revivea battered tradition

CHOKWE, Mozambique – When floods devastated the

district in 2000, many relief organizations sent

agricultural inputs such as seed. However, some of

the seed, from neighbouring countries or even as far

away as North America, were not adapted to the local

ecology and did not do well.

A better and longer-term solution may be local

seed fairs, which bring together local farmers who

have surplus seed of traditional food crops to sell or

trade with other farmers looking for such seed. The

government gives the poorest seedless farmers

vouchers, which can be exchanged for seed at the fair.

This allows the farmers to select and buy their

preferred seed varieties. Developed by the

government and FAO, the seed fair programme has

already held two well-attended fairs in the area.

“Seed fairs are meant to revitalize the traditional

exchange of seeds, which has been affected by the

disasters,” says Francisca Langa, a district extension

officer. “We make sure women, who are the

traditional seed managers, get the vouchers, because

they are a type of money and men might take them

and sell them.”

“If the family is dying, then the

seeds are dying too.”

Luis Maxinho Baloi - traditional leader

Percentage of men and women in LinKS study who could identifymore than one variety of a given traditional crop

Crop Women Men

Pumpkin 50% 30%

Sweet potato 41% 23%

Cassava 22% 3.8%

▼

Traditional agriculture (top) and food preparation (bottom)

still rely heavily on women’s labour.

DAR ES SALAAM, United Republic of Tanzania - Even as the

government formulates policies that will modernize the country’s huge livestock

sector, it is looking for ways to tap the local knowledge of herders about

everything from stock management to traditional breeds and local cures.

Western science contributes much to livestock production – cows that give

large quantities of milk, for example, and vaccines against contagious disease.

But often the Western breeds are too delicate for harsh African conditions, or

the medicines too expensive for subsistence herders. Why can’t Tanzania take the best from both the

modern and traditional worlds?

FAO AS CATALYST. FAO’s LinKS project contributes to this

process by training researchers and scientists to understand

and document local knowledge and the relationship between

it, gender and biodiversity (see Why gender, biodiversity and

local knowledge go together on page 1).

The project has fostered a network of professionals in

key ministries, non-governmental organizations and

universities, people who can call on each other for support

and information. “With a network it becomes easier to

influence the government; it becomes a lobby,” says LinKS

national coordinator Sachin Das.

“Before LinKS, a lot of people were shy to say they were

working on indigenous knowledge,” says Mkangare Minja, an

ethnoveterinarian conducting ongoing research into the

scientific validity of traditional medicines, the first step on

the long road to expanding their use. “Through the network

I am now communicating with other ethnoveterinarians in

the country so we don’t duplicate research.”

Faith Magambo, a sociologist from the Tanzanian Food

and Nutrition Centre, adds: “Scientists can’t make things

happen by themselves. LinKS contributed to our work by

making the community a focus instead of the lab.”

On the campus of Sokoine University of Agriculture in

Morogoro, a couple of hours west of the capital, 2 500

students, 30 percent of them women, throng classrooms

A system to utilize local knowledge takes shape

Learning from

▼

Research laboratory at Ministry of Water and Livestock Development (top).

Members of the Tanzanian network on local knowledge meet (above right).

Students at Sokoine University of Agriculture prepare

for exams (below right); soon the university curriculum will cover

local farming and herding knowledge.

and labs to learn the latest scientific methods. Soon they will

learn about local knowledge as well, thanks to LinKS support

for a teaching module on the subject.

INFLUENCING POLICY. The Ministry of Water and

Livestock Development is preparing a national Animal

Breeding Policy, a major step forward, which foresees the

creation of a genetic resources centre. Two of the five policy

drafters and many of the professionals who will staff the

future centre are associated with the LinKS project. FAO, as

the lead UN agency on agrobiodiversity, has been

contributing to such issues in the country since 1991.

“LinKS came at the right time, when we’re trying to

put together the pieces of a new livestock system,” says

David Sendalo, assistant director for livestock research. “A

network puts me in touch with all kinds of contributors to

this process.”

the herders

“We hope the next generation

will integrate the best of the

modern with the best of tradition.”

George Kifuko - masai herder

Of red sheepand green chicks

What happens when a livestock breed shows anexceptional trait?

Take the Red Masai sheep, which show a geneticresistance to parasites, a major problem in Africa.“The Masai know the sheep have thosecharacteristics, but they don’t know why,” notesSachin Das, LinKS national coordinator.

The fear is that, sinceTanzanian science is unable toisolate and then perhapscapitalize on the parasite-resistant gene, someone in theWest will.

“We’re afraid we’ll lose thesheep. They’ll get bought up andwe’ll have to buy back a new,improved breed in 20 years.”

Some local knowledge iseasier to understand.

“The other day I saw afarmer with a yard full ofgreen chicks,” says PenielMwasha, assistant director forextension in the Ministry ofWater and LivestockDevelopment. “He told me heused a dye made from a typeof grass in order tocamouflage them from hawks.The chicks had a 90 percentsurvival rate.”

The Masa i ’s story

MZEE NDEMO TIPA, United Republic of Tanzania – “Ouranimals are well adapted to this place, compared to theexotics. They are resistant to trypanosomiasis and areable to travel long distances to better pasturage. Theexotics can’t walk 10 kilometres without being wateredlike our local breeds can,” says Masai herder BakariMameo, sitting under a tree in this bush hamlet an hourwest of the capital. “We bought some Friesian cross-breeds. They only lasted six months. Some died andothers started losing weight.”

Fellow herder George Kifuko picks up the story: “If wehave two drugs, a traditional and a modern, we decidewhich to use based on two criteria: cost and side-effects.”

He adds that, despite the fact that some Masaichildren are rejecting traditional ways, “We hope thenext generation will integrate the best of the modernwith the best of tradition.”

The Tanzanian government is documenting Masailivestock practice through a LinKS-commissioned study.

▼

A Masai mother and child take a break from milking their cows (top) while

a Masai herder shows a handful of mkunde kunde bark (above right). When the bark

is pounded into powder (cover photo) and mixed with water it can be administered

to livestock, such as this goat (below right), to cure worm infestations.

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© FAO 2004

To order other titles in the FAO in the field series, contact theCommunication and Design Group, FAO, at the above street address. Titlesinclude: Grassroots potential unleashed: Good news from West Africanfishing communities (English, French and Spanish) and Catching the rain: Asuccessful partnership conserves drylands in Tunisia (English, French andItalian).

All photos in this booklet are taken by Giuseppe Bizzarri and are the property of FAO.

For further information, contact:

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Fax: (+39) 06 57052004Email: links-project@fao.org

www.fao.org/sd/links Local knowledge and biodiversity are everywhere under threat.This farmer in Mozambique (above), whose husband has died of HIV/AIDS,

says she is having trouble passing farming know-how to her children.Monoculture, as represented by this sugar cane plantation in Swaziland (below), can threaten biodiversity by displacing small-scale farmers and traditional crops.

AD/I/Y5511E/2/9.04/3100