Especially, fish is an important source of protein for farmers, if the fish production had decreased, the nutritional condition of farmers would have been affected. Farmers give high priority to human health. According to their ethno-etiology, poison causes serious illness to living things. They refuse to handle pesticide and herbicide if they feel ill when they use them. Especially after the outbreak of a fish disease in the Muda area, farmers strongly considered pesticide and herbicide to be poisonous.
Farmers give high priority to personal decision making.
Farmers do not have a hierarchical organization in which leaders can force farmers to use pesticide and herbicide. Personal selection and modification of new techniques are respected by other villagers. And also the instructions of the Muda Agricultural Development Authority are not unconditionally accepted. To combine the modern and the traditional, and make them fit the local cultural-ecological setting, indigenous knowledge of farming provides a good basis. According to the case of the Muda area, as rice is a traditional staple food in the project area, farmers have their own traditional system of rice cultivation.