Livestock disease is one of the biggest
challenges facing the livestock sector. Besides leading
to loss in production it is also of enormous public health
concern; to producers who live in close proximity to
animals as well as consumers who consume and utilize
livestock products. Developing countries often have poor
veterinary services and outreach. Diagnosis and reporting
are also minimal. On the other hand diseases like Foot
and mouth disease, bird flu and recently blue tongue
are also emerging as global challenges.
In developing countries limited and expensive veterinary
health care is a major cause for low productivity of
livestock especially in rural areas. Poor farmers are
the most affected as they do not have the means to access
expensive or sophisticated veterinary care. On the other
hand there is a vast repertoire of indigenous knowledge
based on ethno veterinary and management practices, which
has the potential to address some of the health care
problems on a local and low cost basis.
Since 1996 ANTHRA
has worked intensively with different rural communities
in Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra in
India on an action research project to document,
research and socially validate local animal health care,
feeding
and management practices. Some of the key findings
of this research include:
Community knowledge and innovations
are an integral part of the day-to-day healing,
feeding, grazing and
management practices of farmers.
Over 80% farmers would
prefer to use Indigenous Knowledge and practices
because they are easily and quickly available,
especially in remote villages.
This knowledge is
today rapidly disappearing from the community because
of the absence of written records,
the simultaneous breakdown in traditional inter-generational
transmission of knowledge.
The application of this
knowledge by local communities is also under severe
threat because of the loss
of natural resources and biodiversity on which this knowledge depends.
Further the restrictions placed on local
communities on the use of natural and livelihood resources
by mainstream “development
interventions”, policies, institutions
as well as the commercialization of natural
resources are other
factors that impede its wide-scale application.
For
more details see:
Report - Indigenous knowledge
applications in livestock care
Publication - Ethnoveterinary
Research in India: an Annotated Bibliography
