ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with indigenous knowledge systems and indigenous learning systems. It examines key role of host country institutions in finding technology which "fits" and explores the issues of preparing a rural social system for technical change. The chapter explores some suggestions about reciprocity in intersystem interactions. Host country institutions should be taken into account in planning strategies for transfer of food production technology to developing nations. Too often strategies have been developed for technology transfer based on various technological considerations, ignoring the economic, the social and the cultural considerations to say nothing of host country institutions. Introduction of new technology into a system is like transplanting an organ into a human being or some other animal. In agriculture some technology is developed for large-scale farming systems; other people have small scale farming systems. Some technology is appropriate where there is a surplus of land; a different technology tends to be appropriate where there is a shortage of land.
