THE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF ISFAHAN PEASANTS IN THE EXPLOITATION, STORAGE AND INCREASING THE PRODUCTIVITY OF AGRICULTURAL WATER

Iran is one of the countries which its major parts are in dry and semi-arid areas and continually was faced with drought and dryness. Isfahan province is one of the dry provinces in Iran with the average of 116mm for rainfall. In spite of these natural conditions, the agricultural background in these areas comes back to the very past ages of history .Iranian farmers including Isfahan farmers in order to make use of surface and subterranean water sources created appropriate irrigation methods and raise different types of plants. These methods which were used by farmers from a portion of indigenous knowledge of our country in the agricultured shaped and established by passing time and transferred from one generation to the next one. The study and documentation about this knowledge not only prevents it from extinction but also make possible to integrate it with academic knowledge in order to provide a suitable technology either resolve the increasing demands or exploit the limited ground resources. In this study it has been tried to examine the Isfahanian agricultural indigenous knowledge in the field of exploitation storage and increasing the productivity of water. Major methods which are used in this study to collect the data are including field observation, exploratory interview and tapes and photographs.

THE INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF ISFAHAN PEASANTS IN THE EXPLOITATION, STORAGE AND INCREASING THE PRODUCTIVITY OF AGRICULTURAL WATER Keywords:

Indigenous knowledge , rural areas , drought , Isfahan , province , agricultural water , subterranean canal