Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS): Applications in innovative Agri-business Activities in South Africa and Zimbabwe

Introduction

• The thesis focus on iks in SA and Zim and how it is applicable to modern day agri-business activities
• People are deprived from applying what they know in agri-businesses
• The motive of this research is on the application of iks in African agricultural businesses towards the production of a complete product for Africa
• There is untapped crucial knowledge in Africa. African be highly productive if given the chance to produce from her iks.
• Iks could be maintained, improved, implemented and passed on
• In this thesis knowledge forms which contributed to the existence of the then people are going to be unraveled
• Suggestions on how iks can be capitalized towards the development of sustainable future would be raised.
• A lot of current developments emanated from iks
• African societies are losing due to lack of contribution in business domains.
• Iks can be mantained,improved,implemented and passed on through oral tradition data banks, written records and archaeological heritages
• Skills and expertise though they appeared individualistic benefited many people for example the "cow horn formation" (Chigwedere 1999)
• Knowledge is pivotal in the facets of survival; thus why it is said "Knowledge is power"
• Prusak (1998:3) posit that "Knowledge is a fluid a fluid mix of framed experiences, values, contextual information and expert insights…"
• The definition sounds nice but it takes issues of ontology for granted. Knowledge is produced anywhere, everywhere, whenever and from anyone
• Butler in Schwartz (2006:1) argues that there is a relationship between the individual and his/her social world; where knowledge is constructed.
• Iks comes from the people of citizenry therefore must be capitalised among generations for informed decisions and to influence productivity.
• Jordan the then Minister of Arts and Culture of SA (2005) said;
• IKS predates the imperial and colonial era. Despite the passage of time elements of it still are the lived experience of various communities. They have been preserved in the manner in which these communities deal with birth, the coming of age, maturity, marriage, old age and death. These ways of doing things have provided people with the survival strategies to deal with poverty and destitution, to create stability and how they co-exist with other communities…
• National Research Foundation (NRF) (2005) asserts that iks refers to the complex set of knowledge and technologies existing and developed around specific conditions of populations and communities indigenous to a particular geographic area…These populations…retain some of, or their entire own social, economic, cultural and political institutions. …IK refers to the knowledge developed by these populations in themselves, as well as knowledge developed through interaction with other populations in South Africa
• Agri-business matching the African people should be practised, this would promote sustainable development.