Traditional Forms of Communication for Agricultural Related Livelihood in Rural Sri Lanka

Abstract

According to the Annual report of Agricultural Statistics in 2019, 25.5% of agricultural labour force is engaged in the various agricultural related professions in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the traditional forms of communication can be used to empower the agricultural related livelihood. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to examine the use of traditional forms of communication in developing agricultural related livelihood in rural Sri Lanka. Development communication is the main conceptual and theoretical framework of this study. The geographical location is Pelwatta in Buttala Divisional Secretariat in Monaragala district, Uva Province. Therefore, the FGDs were conducted with 25 people who are aware and use these folk media in Pelwatta (purposive sampling). In depth interviews were conducted with four key people from the same community. The qualitative data were analysed thematically. The results show that the majority of people are into agricultural related professions such as cane farming, banana cultivation, dairy farming, chena cultivation, paddy cultivation and working for Pelwatta Sugar Company and Diary company which are currently government owned companies. The people use various traditional forms of communication to fulfill their socio-cultural, economics needs and issues in the day to day lives. Moreover, these traditional forms of communication are used to get rid of diseases and epidemics, for the protection of agricultural crops, maintain the uniqueness of their food culture, protect the cultural and religious values, heritages etc. The responsible authorities should support these communities to protect and promote the cultural, socio-economic values, traditions, communications, believes, heritages and resources unique to this area.