The place of indigenous Languages in the Development and Teaching of Agriculture in Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Agriculture is the second largest source of Nigeria’s national wealth after oil and it goes hand-in-gloves with rural development. However, it is the sector of economy with the highest poverty incidence in the country. Several scholars have posited that to enhance the productivity of the rural farmers, indigenous languages should be used in agricultural education and training. The focus of this paper therefore, is to investigate the significance of indigenous languages in agricultural education and training among rural farmers in Osun State, Nigeria, using Focus Group Discussion, observation of rural farmers-professional communication and examination of texts containing vital information for farmers and for making texts in the Yorùbá medium. The study found out that rural farmers and domain professionals do not have adequate knowledge of domain vocabularies. This would result in communication breakdown between them on several occasions. The study recommends an urgent need to localize modern agricultural concepts in Nigeria’s indigenous languages to facilitate effective transfer of technical and sub-technical information and knowledge to grassroot farmers.