Indigenous Food Security
The CIKS advances the promotion of community-based knowledge systems as a viable solution to mitigate against national and global ecological challenges affecting sustainable food security, biodiversity, human and environmental health. This is based on the argument that local and global strategies that work in harmony with nature are more accessible, affordable and hence sustainable.
In South Africa and Africa at large, smallholder farmers, the majority being rural women, depend on their IKS including locally available resources for food security and environmental management. They have been able to produce food with minimal conventional practices. This implies that the promotion of IK-based food security strategies and biodiversity need to be taken seriously in agricultural policy development, with the active participation of IK-holders and practitioners themselves.