TRADITIONAL METEROLOGY

The Luo people of Kenya have a culture in agriculture known as "Golo Kodhi", it requires that before the onset of any crop planting season, specifically cereals, maize and sorghum, the eldest male member in the community had to give the signal for the planting to be carried out by the younger members in the community
   This cultural practice can be linked to modern day meteorological science which involves years of observing weather patterns within an area and use of the data observed over a long period of time to be able to predict what weather and climatic conditions to expect for the future, this has given rise to the present day weather forecasts.
   For the Luo, since there were no weather observation instruments in the olden days, they had to rely on the eldest male member within the community because being the eldest in a community ensured that one had the benefit of longevity and experience  observing the different weather patterns and as such was best placed to predict  subsequent patterns . Male elders were relied upon to give the predictions , because as opposed to their female counterparts, they had the advantage of being born in an area and continuously residing there.
One can quickly see that there is dare need to incorporate indigenous Knowledge into planning for the current development interventions because what we might consider as scientific solutions to third world problems could be repetitions of what the communities have practiced in their own way for a long time

To solve the problem of food insecurity and be able to feed the 1billion worlds hungry people, it is important for science to be leveraged with  indigenous knowledge. There is urgent need for development actors to try and understand some of the hidden meanings to certain actions undertaken by communities in third world countries especially where such actions relate to agriculture and food security, this will ensure that the science in African cultures are tapped and. built upon