Learning from the past: Nubian traditional knowledge and agricultural resilience, crop choices and endangered cultural heritage

该项目为“变化中的苏丹的可持续性和生存系统”项目(2013-2016)产生的研究提出了新的产出。该项目探讨了现代和古代作物选择的比较如何有助于在尼罗河流域中部小规模定居点的农业战略中进行风险管理。对努比亚农民的采访显示，自20世纪中叶以来，苏丹北部极度干旱地区种植的农作物发生了戏剧性的变化，这是以前没有记录的。传统的农业知识正在迅速消失，一些信息只有年迈的农民才能记住。几种谷物和豆类在近几十年前一直是村民种植的最重要的粮食作物，但现在很少使用，它们对干旱和高温的耐受性相对较强。它们在区域考古植物学记录中的存在也揭示了它们的长期使用，进一步表明了它们在环境中的适宜性。“从过去吸取教训：努比亚传统知识和农业复原力、作物选择和濒危文化遗产”项目旨在：-宣传利用传统农业知识的重要性，以帮助在国际发展和更广泛的农业研究方案中制定农业复原力战略。-强调越来越少使用的谷物和豆类在边缘环境中作为自给自足作物的潜在作用。-促进民族植物学和考古植物学方法对苏丹、英国和国际农业研究和非政府组织部门的贡献。-保护可被视为濒危文化遗产的努比亚传统农业知识，同时作为与未来农业复原力相关的实用知识。这些目标将通过编写一本小册子《改变努比亚农业和作物；Ernetta岛的例子》以及与非政府组织和农业研究人员在英国和苏丹举办的讲习班来实现。这本小册子将提供一种新的形式，向现有和新的受众传播项目成果。这本小册子将为喀土穆以北700公里的Abri/Ernetta地区的当地农业努比亚社区提供一种新颖和直接的方式，并使其受益，旨在帮助子孙后代保护努比亚农业遗产和知识。农民还明确要求制作这样一本小册子，将就小册子的内容征求当地参与者的意见。这本小册子一旦打印出来，将在村庄中分发，旨在为子孙后代保存这些口述历史和当地生态知识。这本小册子将重点介绍传统作物和种植、农业实践和食品的细节，以及这些在近几十年来发生了怎样的变化。还将记录相关的物质文化，如传统厨房和较少的物质文化遗产，如与较老的农业做法模式有关的日常生活。将增加该区域种植作物的古代历史的摘要，以提供今天和最近过去种植的作物的长期背景。通过提供对当地适应性解决方案的独特见解，保存关于当地作物、种植和烹饪的土著知识对未来的粮食安全具有影响。在伦敦举办的跨学科跨部门讲习班“传统农业知识、被遗忘的‘作物和农业复原力’”旨在进一步促进民族植物学和考古植物学方法对农业研究和非政府组织/非政府组织部门的贡献，并将这本小册子作为个案研究。制定保存传统农业知识的方法并强调其重要性，对于管理当前和未来农业对季节性、年度和长期气候变化和变化的复原力至关重要。

This project proposes new outputs for research generated by the 'Sustainability and subsistence systems in a changing Sudan' project (2013 - 2016). This project explored how comparisons of present-day and ancient crop choices can inform on risk management within agricultural strategies of small-scale settlements along the middle Nile valley. Interviews with Nubian farmers revealed dramatic, previously undocumented, shifts in crops grown in the hyper-arid region of northern Sudan since the mid-20th century. Traditional agricultural knowledge is rapidly disappearing with some information remembered only by elderly farmers. Several cereals and pulses that were the most important food crops grown by villagers until recent decades, but are now little used, are comparatively tolerant to aridity and heat. Their presence in the regional archaeobotanical record also reveals their long-term use, further suggesting their environmental suitability. The 'Learning from the past: Nubian traditional knowledge and agricultural resilience, crop choices and endangered cultural heritage' project aims to:- Advocate the importance of using traditional agricultural knowledge to help create strategies for agricultural resilience within international development and broader agricultural research programmes. - To highlight the potential role of increasingly little used cereals and pulses as subsistence crops in marginal environments.- To promote the way ethnobotanical and archaeobotanical approaches can contribute to the agricultural research and NGO sector in Sudan, the UK and internationally. - To preserve traditional Nubian agriculture knowledge that can be considered as endangered cultural heritage and simultaneously as practical knowledge relevant to future agricultural resilience.These aims will be achieved through the creation of a booklet 'Changing Nubian agriculture and crops; the example of Ernetta Island' and the organisation of workshops to be held in the UK and Sudan with NGOs and agricultural researchers. The booklet will provide a new format for disseminating the project results to both existing and new audiences. The booklet will provide a novel and direct way to engage with and benefit local farming Nubian communities in the Abri/Ernetta region, 700km north of Khartoum, and aims to help preserve Nubian agricultural heritage and knowledge for future generations. Farmers also expressly requested the creation of such a booklet, and local participants will be consulted on the booklet content. Once printed, the booklet will be distributed in villages and aims to conserve these 'oral histories' and local ecological knowledge for future generations. The booklet will focus on details of traditional crops and cultivation, agricultural practices and foodstuffs and how these have been changing in recent decades. Associated material culture such as traditional kitchens and less tangible cultural heritage such the daily routines connected with older modes of agricultural practices will also be documented. A summary of the ancient history of crops grown in the region will be added to provide a long-term context to crops grown today and in the recent past. Preserving indigenous knowledge about local crops, cultivation and cuisine has implications for future food security through offering unique insights into local adaptive solutions. An interdisciplinary cross-sector workshop 'Traditional agricultural knowledge, 'forgotten' crops and agricultural resilience' held in London aims to further promote the way ethnobotanical and archaeobotanical approaches can contribute to the agricultural research and the NGO/NPO sector, using the booklet as a case study. Developing ways - and highlighting the importance - of conserving traditional agricultural knowledge is vital to managing present and future agricultural resilience to seasonal, annual and long-term climate variation and change.