Complementing Livestock Health Service through Indigenous System: Case Studies from West Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, India -

Livestock health service plays a significant role in improving livelihood as well as ensure household food security in rural areas. These services are not only made available by formal institutions but also by local healers, who have either inherited such knowledge or learned by experimentation. The challenges faced by these informal systems of local knowledge include sustenance and continuity of such knowledge, opportunities of lateral learning and linkages with formal systems, among others. This paper attempts to comprehend knowledge holders, their intricate relationship with the surrounding, people they serve, and with formal institutions. The knowledge possessed by these healers, need not always be associated as a part of traditional knowledge systems as sometimes by experimentation, derivative innovation(s) from a traditional knowledge have been established. Such findings help to understand characteristics of knowledge system to determine possible institutional interface and to develop a suitable framework to include these innovations into modern veterinary service.