Knowledge Management of Local Mushrooms Wisdom in Ubon Ratchathani Province

Abstract

Local mushrooms or wild mushrooms were living organism in ecosystem known by Ubon Ratchathani people for long time ago and were used as food, medicine and adornment that considered as the local wisdom management of local consumption and conservation. This local living style affiliated with local plant and the culture of local food consumption like mushroom, bamboo shoot, sweet potato and fruit, mentioned that “Isan (northeast) people eat local vegetable as their medicine and eat fish as their food”. However, the knowledge about local wisdom was about to disappear so it need to be conserved and developed. The objectives of this study were to study about knowledge management model of local mushroom conservation and the building of learning the network of local mushroom wisdom in the communities in Ubon Ratchathani province using participatory action research during the year 2010-2015.

                 This study founded that Po-tok and Non-keng community,Varinchamrap district , Ubon Ratchathani province were aware of the local mushroom conservation since the mushroom were abundant food sources in the past and they used knowledge management to make the local food comeback to be the source of both food and medicine for their next generations in the future using knowledge management for life, the knowledge management model included 6 steps ; 1) conversation and data searching 2) experimenting and learning 3)knowledge exchanging 4)knowledge assessment 5)knowledge storing  and 6) systematic knowledge disseminating. Moreover, the communities had a process of building networks base on the system that emphasizing on people participation and systematic network management with flexible learning process known as the horizontal network of knowledge management for sustainability occupation development, the networks  included Po-tok network, Non-keng network, Dang-Mor network, Na-tan network, Nong-Crok network  and  Ubon Ratchthani University as their academic knowledge supporting network. Furthermore, it was found that the networks were also able to help the promotion of afforestation and conservation leading to the balance of the ecosystems and being an old-age pension for the sustainability of farmer lives.