ABSTRACT
African agencies and development practitioners understand better than the planning and implementation of sustainable agricultural development will be facilitated if indigenous knowledge and objectives are understood and taken into account. While anthropologists have long understood that seemingly simple words can obscure complex concepts, agricultural experts have met with difficulties when they attempted to define and analyze a farm or a household in traditional agriculture, according to the Western tradition from which the agricultural and economic sciences evolved. Differentiating among individuals active in agricultural and related activities is particularly relevant in regard to women farmers, who play a significant, sometimes primary, role in food production. Agro-ecological conditions can vary tremendously, often within short distances. Farmers are well aware of local soil characteristics and conditions, and detailed taxonomies of soil and plants have developed over generations in the local languages. The concept of land management and land use planning has grown together with the increasing social and environmental concerns.
