Harvesting Indigenous Knowledge for Community Development: Lessons from the Maasai Pastoralists of Narok, Kenya

摘要

This project was designed to determine management of small ruminant diseases among the Maasai people of Narok district. Emphasis was on establishing the status of the community`s indigenous knowledge and its relevance and/or implication for use in development projects. Data collection involved direct observation, interviews with 80 farmers and 4 key informants from the research site. Findings indicate that farmers depended entirely on natural vegetation to produce small ruminants. The most common small ruminant diseases in the area were east coast fever, trypanosomosis and diarrhoeal diseases. Disease management involved use of manufactured drugs and ethno-medicine. There was also widespread use of locally made mating control devices to ensure that only desired traits were passed on. The project observes that some aspects of indegenous knowledge may be adopted in development projects, some may be adopted after validation research while some aspects of the knowledge may hinder successful project development and hence need corrective action.