Indigenous Knowledge-Based Farming Practices: A Setting for the Contestation of Modernity, Development and Progress

Abstract This paper is concerned with the development of farming practices, which combine expressions of indigenous knowledge and Western knowledge. It explains how farmers in Zombwe Extension Planning Area, Malawi, rework their farming practices using indigenous and Western knowledge in a manner that meets their needs and aspirations while utilising available resources. Drawing on findings from field research, the paper explores how modernity, development and progress are contested terms, variously understood between farmers and agricultural experts.