Common constraints faced by the nilgiris tribal women while adopting indigenous practices

Abstract

The knowledge thus generated over the years is time tested and has the attribute of eco-friendliness. Such knowledge is called the 'indigenous technical knowledge (ITK)' or 'local knowledge' or 'traditional knowledge'. Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu was purposively selected because it is one of the districts in Tamil Nadu in which more percentage of tribal population has been reported. Kotagiri and Udhagamandalam blocks were purposively selected because these two blocks have relatively more percentage of the selected tribal communities. Multistage Random sampling method was adopted in selection of the respondents. Ex post facto research design was adopted. The total sample size is 180. An overwhelming majority (92.78%) of the tribal farmers expressed poor soil fertility as a major constraint for the adoption of indigenous technologies. The major problems faced by the tribal farmers in the adoption of indigenous technologies were uneven topography of land (87.22%), and less yield and income (85.56%).