Traditional Knowledge

Farming communities in the Central Indian landscape hold detailed, place-based knowledge about their crops, soils, forests, and seasons. This knowledge has been built through generations of close observation and practice. It is not static — it adapts, responds, and evolves with the landscape. And it is often invisible in formal research.

The Traditional Knowledge working group is focused on engaging seriously with this body of understanding — not as data to be extracted, but as a living form of knowledge that the A&L program is in relationship with.

The group works on several fronts:

• Documenting what farmers know about kodo millet and other traditional crops — varieties, behaviours, risks, storage practices, seasonal relationships

• Understanding community knowledge around matona — the locally recognised risk associated with kodo — as a starting point for scientific inquiry, not an endpoint

• Exploring how traditional ecological knowledge around forest, soil, and water shapes farming decisions

• Asking how this knowledge can be held and transmitted without being institutionalised in ways that diminish it

This is careful, ethically demanding work. It requires ongoing consent, genuine reciprocity, and a commitment to ensuring that communities remain the primary beneficiaries of any knowledge exchange.

 

A note on matona

The understanding of matona is still developing. This page will be updated as we learn more. We are committed to presenting this work with the humility and care it deserves, and to ensuring that farming communities' knowledge and concerns remain at the center of the inquiry.