Abstract:
The objectives of this study were: 1) to study the local wisdom of farmers in Buriram in context of raising native chicken, 2) to study of body knowledge of farmers from using herbs for raising in native chickens, and 3) to study the acceptance of farmers in context of raising native chicken by herbs after training. The target group consisted of 10 farmers in Moo 1, 9, and 15 Ban Talunglek, Tambon Talunglek, Amphur Muang, Buriram Province. Those farmers were purposively selected using as population samples. The farmers also had passed the training workshop on raising crossbred native chickens and experienced in raising native chickens. Data were collected from household interview and group discussion. Qualitative analysis was used in this research and the analytical descriptive was presented. The results showed that most of farmers raised chickens as free range (backyard system) which was the conventional system as they have been done for a long time. They used some herbs such as holy basil leaves, kaffir lime leaves, citronella grass or custard apple leaves as floor foundation materials for controlling external parasites. They also used some herbs for deworming internal nematodes such as ripped betel nut. They fed the chickens by local feedstuffs such as rice bran, broken rice, paddy rice glaucoma leaves, spinach leaves, and also wasted food from kitchen. Concentrate feed was sometimes supplemented in the diet. There was no vaccination program and the sick chickens were treated by medicines form animal food store using water-mixing. After the farmers trained in the workshop on raising crossbred native chickens and experienced in raising native chickens, they have implemented the knowledge by raising native chickens by themselves for 13 weeks. Subsequently, the knowledge management of using herbs for raising native chickens was evaluated in a focus group. It was found that the farmers gained the knowledge of using herbs for raising native chickens, feeding, good sanitation, regularly vaccination program, collecting the data of growth performances, carcass quality, calculation of cost production, and return profit. In addition, the target farmers had accepted the using herbs for raising native chickens since they had knowledge and understanding about herbs that can be used in raising native chickens.