Agricultural programmes designed for small-scale farmers in developing countries are conventionally aimed at increasing food production.[1] Yet, in spite of increased food production, resource-poor people in many of the developing countries continue to suffer from severe malnutrition.[2] Moreover, the increased pressure for food production has led to the gradual disappearance of indigenous plant and animal foods from the diets of local people.[3] This process has resulted in the further deterioration of local knowledge systems associated with the local plant foods.[4] The erosion of cultural knowledge related to food production all too often increases the dependency of resource-poor rural households on the external food markets.
Indigenous knowledge, as the basis of decision making, is frequently unknown or overlooked by developmental workers seeking solutions to food problems.[5] Too often there is no systematic record documenting the knowledge system - what it is, what it does, who does it, or the local approaches for changing it.[6] Some contemporary research on local knowledge systems related to food production indicates that many of these systems are sophisticated, and contribute significantly to food security.[7] Food production systems involve complex processes for producing food from diversified agro-ecological environments to meet the subsistent needs of the local people. In addition, these systems are dynamic and complex, reflecting generations of careful observations of the agro-ecological and sociocultural environments.
In the pursuit of designing sustainable food production strategies, studying indigenous food production systems can be a rewarding experience.[8] Local plants are important genetic resources for sustainable land use systems and possess high nutritional and medicinal values.[9] Local-level crop rotational practices which involve a cropping pattern of cereals, legumes, oilseeds and vegetables result in the availability of a wide variety of foods.[10] Such practices reduce the dependency of the farmers on credit and external input supply.