INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR SUSTAINABLE GENETIC CONSERVATION OF FINGER MILLET [Eleusine coracana (L.) GAERTN] IN NORTHERN REGION OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) leads to sustainable livelihood for valuable self-sufficiency and self-determination and also used for conservation of crop genetic resources with climate change. Hence, a survey research was conducted on IK for sustainable genetic conservation of finger millet in Tigray, Ethiopia. For this study both primary and secondary sources of data was used and hence 287 respondents from three purposively selected districts were participated. The collected data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Results shown that 95% of the respondents have been using IK for sustainable production of finger millet mainly dominated by men-headed HH (79%) than women-headed HH (21%). This indicates that there is a limited IK share of women headed HH during production of the crop. In addition, ~ 205 of respondents have been conserved their local varieties (LV), only 82 of the respondents have been lost their LV. Therefore, 90% of respondents prefer the LV than improved varieties (10%), because they were tolerating and give better yield consistency during variable climates. It can be concluded that, the IK of farmers has been involving for sustainable genetic conservation of finger millet for many years ago. However, so far it was not well documented and integrated in scientific way. Therefore, designing further intensive research projects are recommended for sustainable genetic conservation, seed system, documentation and integration of the IK with advanced innovations to assure the food and nutrition security of small scale households. Besides this, participation and involvement of women farmers’ IK in nutritional assessment of the crop should be promoted.