A comparative study on indigenous approaches to food security among different Batswana ethnic groups in the North West Province : cases from central and Rustenburg regions

Abstract

Different Batswana ethnic groups in Central and Rustenburg regions of the North-West Province depend on agriculture for their food supply and livelihoods. These ethnic groups include the Bahurutshe in Moshana, Barolong in Seweding, Bakwena in Pella and Bakgatla in Moruleng. Agriculture as their source of food, also remained an important source for cash income used for purchasing other household utilities and consumables. Indigenous knowledge is a local knowledge acquired by local people through the accumulation of experiences, informal experiments and intimate understanding of the environment m a given culture. It remains knowledge mostly used for food security and production. Food security is a system of meeting long-term needs of food whereby all people have access to enough nutritious food at all times. This goes beyond food production to preservation and storage. Other important components of food security are land, water, forests and livestock. Food security interventions in rural areas have to be addresses within the context of poverty alleviation. Reducing poverty in South Africa, especially in rural areas, require substantial changes in the distribution of income, wealth and economic power. Through the process of innovation and adaptation different Batswana ethnic groups managed to develop different food security approaches from which they ensured food security among their societies. Indigenous food security systems practiced by different Batswana ethnic groups are the basis for sustainable agriculture and provision of livelihoods. These approaches also let to the transmission of norms, values and skills used by local communities from one generation to the next. They include the systems of soil fertility management, multiple cropping and the application of soil conditioners. The study found that Batswana farmers had evolved food production practices which are highly divers and far from static. They have acquired a fund of knowledge on the production and utilization of a wide range of food crop species. Rarely do traditional farmers' fields contain only one crop, they are either mixed or planted on separate parts of the field. Their fields represent a complex of species which provide them with their basic requirements, i.e. food and income throughout the year. The study recommends that the government should formulate policies that will indicate their use of indigenous knowledge in food security. This will help local communities control their seeds and crops, and also make them save their indigenous species of crops. This study goes further to recommend that the study communities should be encouraged to use their indigenous equipment for agricultural production. Unless indigenous food security becomes part and parcels of curriculum a lot of traditional knowledge will be lost. This study therefore recommends further research in areas of sustainable utilization of indigenous technology, knowledge related aspects of food security in rural areas as part of an integrated rural development strategy.