Blending little & the big science: Making a tail wag the dog

Honey Bee Network has been pursuing for more than two decades the blend between two systems of thoughts and knowledge differing mainly in pedagogies more than substantive principle. The ability of common people to abstract scientific principles may be limited but their ability to develop generalised, testable and refutable technologies is not limited.

Without this ability, they couldn't have developed the skill and science of keeping milk drinkable for several days without having access to refrigerator. High carbon steel was not known in ancient Europe while tribal communities in several parts of the country were developing it. Why did this tradition not flourish and feed into evolution of valid and viable science in the country? Tradition of tempering such steel to give strength and torque is something still exists. But do we have equations which will enable a local community to forge the kind of steel they may need for meeting varying needs of modern agriculture, or medical science.

Let me recall an example I first learned in 1991-92.  In Andhra Pradesh, tobacco growers put their hands in a pot of fresh milk after transplanting a few seedlings. This is reportedly done to prevent diffusion of Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV).  Dr Chari, then director of Central Tobacco Research Institute had told me about this practice, when I inquired about examples of farmers' practices which they had found exciting and intriguing.

Apparently, if there were a few infected seedlings, then through, rub-inoculation it will spread but not through insects, nematodes, fungi etc.,
(Scholthof, 2004)

In Gujarat, we came across a practice reported by Thakor Morarji (Honey Bee, 2(1):21, 1991) based on the experience of Chhaganbhai Bhimjibhai of Amreli district in which farmers pour milk on the hooves of the animals, affected by Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).

When I was a child and had a pain in the ear, mother's milk was put to give some relief. We have asked this question to many scientists and have received several possible explanations: Properties of human milk in infant's stomach after an hour of ingestion have been reported to cause inhibition of certain viruses (Charles E. Isaacs, Halldor Thormar and Tammy Pessolano, 1986,) and Milk has also been recommended for plant virus control in Canada (2005) and India (1999, 2000). There could be many other explanations, medium chain fatty acids, lipases, RNase enzyme and so on. We still need to figure out the science of how whey, milk, skimmed milk and others in helping prevent diffusion of certain kind of pathogens including viruses.

We learnt another intriguing practice in 1992 which remains to be studied scientifically (Honey Bee, 3(2), 19, 1992). Three farmers from the same Bharuch district, but coming from different villages reported crushing leaves of Dhumas ( Combretrum ovalifolium)  or another plant keji) with insect blister beetle to trigger certain chemicals which would reportedly repel the pest. Not very often do we come across chemical formulations including plant and insect extracts.

In Orissa, we came across another example where Buddhdeb Sahu in Angul discovered the use of a particular plant, which ripened banana better. When CFTRI did research on it, they found that it not only ripened better but also changed the ratio of reducing to non reducing sugars, making the fruits healthier and sweeter.

The challenge before us is to search for sustainability science, which makes the knowledge, innovation and practices of common people not valuable just for generating affordable solution, but also for producing high quality science.

If young students can get excited about intriguing grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge, we can hasten the process of generation of not only public goods but also produce high quality patentable technologies which will be accessible to common people under technological commons framework and licensable on commercial terms to firms.

— The author is a professor at IIM-A