The use of scientific and indigenous knowledge in agricultural land evaluation and soil fertility studies of two villages in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

摘要

Local people and small-scale farmers have knowledge of their lands based on soil and land characteristics that remain largely unknown to the scientific community. It is therefore important for researchers to understand farmers' knowledge of soil classification and management. To address this, indigenous knowledge was elicited by questionnaires from 59 households in two villages (Ezigeni and Ogagwini), near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Farmer vernacular suitability evaluation was compared to scientifically surveyed land suitability maps. Yield was used as a quantifiable indicator to test the effect of fertility management practices. It was found that farmers' soil classification was based mainly on topsoil colour and texture. Slope position was the mainfactor determining land suitability. Crop yield, crop appearance, natural vegetation, soil colour and texture, and mesofauna were used to estimate soil fertility. Their fertility assessment was found to be more holistic than that of researchers. Despitethis, there was a correlation between fanners' indigenous evaluation and scientific evaluation implying that there are similarities between the two approaches.