Saving traditional knowhow in agriculture

Abstract

Chapter 15International audienceThe concept of agricultural knowhow here refers to the knowledge accumulated over centuries and that has been slowly carved by exchanges, confrontations, trade and the mixing of cultures even at very local levels throughout the Mediterranean. Although the differences between the North and South of the basin are strongly marked, each locality has traditionally enjoyed a unique identity and a strong individuality in its history. Closely related to the loss of traditional knowhow, the weakening of these identities is shaping a new Mediterranean. A Mediterranean that is northern and southern, local and global, technical and traditional, a constant rebalancing region that is a both complex and unstable. A Mediterranean where it is becoming urgent to save knowhow in danger of being marginalised (and depleted) and align it with the scientific advances of the past decade, in order to address in an integrated way, the various current and foreseeable crises that threaten the fragile balance supporting life in this basin. This chapter argues for the emergence of new production systems, breaking with the current trend of resource degradation and marginalisation of large rural areas, in order to meet these challenges. Agro ecology is presented here as one possible way to collectively live through this course in the cultural, scientific and economic evolution of the Mediterranean