On the United Nation’s Day for South-South Cooperation the blog of the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature initiative carries an article by Edmundo Barrios from the World Agroforestry Centre about integrating local technical knowledge in soil fertility management.

Barrios explains how increasing emphasis is being placed on recognizing local knowledge in addressing agricultural development challenges. He and colleagues have developed the InPaC-S participatory approach and methodological guide as a result of 10 years work in South-South collaboration and knowledge sharing between Latin America and Africa.

InPaC-S aims to “facilitate bottom-up approaches that integrate local knowledge into soil management decision-making processes and strengthen the relevance, credibility and legitimacy required for the increased adoption of co-developed best management practices,” writes Barrios.

The methodological guide explains how participatory tools can be used to identify, classify and prioritize local indicators of soil health knowledge so that they can complement technical indicators. It also aims to build consensus among farming communities about how to best address soil health constraints.

The approach has been tested and validated in a range of different rural environments and socio-economic contexts in Latin America and Africa. It has also recently been proposed for use in climate smart agriculture efforts to minimize post-harvest losses in sub-Saharan Africa.

Read the full story: A Methodological Guide for Blending Local & Technical Knowledge on Soil Fertility Management

See also: Sharing knowledge to better manage our natural resources

Download the guide (in English): Barrios E, Coutinho HLC, Medeiros CAB. 2012. InPaC-S: Participatory Knowledge Integration on Indicators of Soil Quality – Methodological Guide