Building upon Traditional Knowledge to Enhance Resilience of Soils in Sub-Saharan Africa - Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems - page 110

5.1 INTRODUCTION
More than ever before, the debate of the role of traditional knowledge (TK) in accen-
tuating the processes of sustainable soil management in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has
been rekindled and fuelled by the continuously increasing global pressures, namely,
demographic, urbanization, climate change, cyclic drought-floods, and associated
economic growth and development theories and policies (Jones and Thornton 2008).
Previously, the pursuit of sustainable soil management in terms of planning, utiliza-
tion, protection, and monitoring has largely been based on science and technologies
from outside, with little attention paid to TK (Reij et al. 1996). However, land degra-
dation has persisted, becoming widespread and believed to be increasing (Scherr and
Yadav 1997). The discourse of scholars of TK has not helped the situation. Rather
than addressing the fundamental constraints for the TK and scientific knowledge (SK)
systems to symbiotically come together to pave the way for informing policy action on
integration of TK in curricula, and integration with SK for dissemination and develop-
ment, they have largely been defensive, focusing on justification of TK. One benefit that
can accrue from understanding TK is to make it explicit in forms that can be recorded
for easier distribution and reuse. Therefore, this chapter is aimed at improving the
understanding of TK for building synergies with SK for sustainable soil management.
The chapter specifically covers the nature of the problem of lack of integration of TK
and SK, justification for strengthening TK, renaissance of TK resource and soil man-
agement for enhancing resilience, and promoting union of SK and TK.
5.2 NATURE OF PROBLEM OF LACK OF
INTEGRATION OF TK AND SK
Agrawal (1995) argues that pristine indigenous knowledge is more likely to have been
interacting with external knowledge at least to some extent for the last 500 years.
Ever since the colonization of SSA, Western science and technology have been the
predominant external knowledge interacting with TK for aiding decisions for manag-
ing the capitals (natural, human, social, cultural, physical, and financial) for economic
growth and development. However, the widespread and increasing land degradation
provides evidence that the modernization through science and technology alone has
not yielded the desired impacts to agriculture. TK has not been effectively used for
promoting the soil management aspects of increasing resilience and recovery, nor
used to build the confidence of communities in making their management decisions,
following their own procedures and objectives and for development workers to add
value. Several reasons are cited for this discrepancy, including institutional failures
(policy thrust aggressively promoting Science and Technology (S&T) even without
relevance), idealization of TK, and lack of a framework/mechanism for integration.
5.2.1 I nstItutIonal F aIlures —P olIcy a ggressIvely
P romotIng W estern s&t
Modern sciences can be traced back to the scientific revolution of the seventeenth
century and are linked to the ancient Greeks, who used empirical systems to make