County governments have been urged to put more consideration into the application of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in their climate mitigation efforts so as to increase food production, despite the drastic climate changes.
The Chairman of the Ogiek Community, Joseph Towett, said by relying on biodiversity and natural resources for many centuries, indigenous communities have acquired extensive knowledge of natural resources around them, such as wildlife, plants, land use patterns, seasons and climate changes.
However, he said in most cases their indigenous knowledge was ignored in the mitigation measures that are incorporated by the local governments, and yet they are more vulnerable to climate change, since they depend on the livestock economy.
Addressing a press conference in Nakuru town, , Mzee Towett said the Ogiek community has for many years relied on forest honey and herbs for medicine, but the deforestation of the Mau complex didn’t care about their posterity.
He added that time was ripe for the Meteorological Department to incorporate the indigenous knowledge of the rainmakers who have the capacity of predicting rain and drought patterns in advance and use that information to advise farmers on the right crops to plant.
By Veronica Bosibori
