Abstract
Sustainable agriculture requires effective communication of new innovations and technologies in the field to the people at the grass roots. Effective communication occurs through a language that the communicants understand best. Language is part of culture and culture as a way of people’s life encompasses beliefs, taboos and attitudes. These aspects affect how people perceive, internalize, react to and embrace issues, innovation and technology issues included. Information pertaining agricultural issues in Kenya is passed down to the people at the grassroots predominantly through English and Kiswahili. However, majority of the people engaging in agricultural activities at the grassroots use indigenous languages as their main language of interaction. Indigenous languages are the most effective engines of peoples’ cultures and self identification forming cultural legacies through which all forms of human interaction are embraced. This then implies that indigenous languages have a key role to play in achieving the nation’s agricultural goals. Nonetheless, the importance of these languages in the agricultural process has been relatively neglected, compromising the achievement of sustainable agriculture. Adopting a descriptive design, this study demonstrates how indigenous languages relate to the transfer of innovation and technology for sustainable agriculture in Kenya. It further suggests a model for the incorporation of indigenous languages into the agricultural process, in Kenya, for sustainability.
Highlights
The achievement of sustainable agricultural in Kenya is a dream yet to be achieved
In the agricultural sector in Kenya, communication predominantly occurs through the use of English and/or Kiswahili and rarely through indigenous languages, despite the fact that many of the people involved in agricultural production in Kenya predominantly use indigenous languages in their day today agricultural activities
The question that arises that this study sought to address is could the language used in the communication process in agricultural activities be the reason as to why sustainable agriculture has not been attained in Kenya? the
Summary
The achievement of sustainable agricultural in Kenya is a dream yet to be achieved. This is demonstrated by the fact that one of the four main agenda that the Kenyan nation seeks to achieve is food security. All stakeholders in the agricultural framework, in the sector, endeavor to communicate any new innovations and technologies to the people at all levels in the line of agricultural production. If sustainable agriculture is to be realized, effective communication of new innovations and technologies in the agricultural sector to the people involved in agricultural activities at all levels is paramount. In the agricultural sector in Kenya, communication predominantly occurs through the use of English and/or Kiswahili and rarely through indigenous languages, despite the fact that many of the people involved in agricultural production in Kenya predominantly use indigenous languages in their day today agricultural activities. The study suggests a model for incorporating indigenous languages into the transfer of innovations and technologies to the people involved in agricultural activities in Kenya for sustainable agriculture and food security
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