Indigenous Farming Knowledge as a Tool for Addressing Global Warming: A Case Study of the Bedouin in the Negev Arid Highlands – Water Catchments Construction

Abstract

In the previous century, the Bedouins a nomadic people who migrated all over the Arab peninsula with their herds began to settle in villages, one of their settlement areas is the Negev highlands. While the younger generation searches for similar occupations as the surrounding urbanized Israelis, the adult ones in many cases sustain their traditional farming practices. In many cases these practices are not profitable and not sustainable, nevertheless, these practices are based on long-term experience in arid terms. Until recently the municipalities did not invest money and efforts to collect this knowledge and render it a sustainable and profitable one. A mission that became crucial not only due to the adults aging and the risk that this knowledge will be lost but due to the rapid transition of un-arid regions into arid or desertified ones worldwide that requires suitable farming practices. Hereby the scheme of acquiring this knowledge from the Bedouin farmers, designing sustainable and profitable solutions, managing the cultivated lands, and analyzing with them the outcome will be described together with samples from the Negev highlands. This chapter will focus on water catchment construction, which became a crucial requirement for sustainable agriculture due to the increased intensity of the rainfall event worldwide.