Language Use And Communication Strategies In Farmers Moblization For Sustainable Agricultural Development In A Selected Zone In Oromia National Regional State

Communication is a fundamental part in sustainable agricultural development programs and languagernemerges as a key factor in effective communication and implementation of these programs. While it is evidentrnthat social interactions are sustained by agreeable communicative principles, the role of language and therndifferent strategies of communication applied to agriculture and rural development interventions havernreceived very little attention from the parties concerned in the country in general and in Oromia Region inrnparticular. This has yielded detrimental effects in the quality of interaction at the grassroots level. More oftenrnthan not, it is assumed that once there is a common language, effective communication will take place and forrnthis reason language use and communication strategies are never given much thought in the field ofrnsustainable agricultural development interaction in the study area. This study was designed to criticallyrnanalyze how language is used and what communication strategies are employed in disseminating agriculturalrndevelopment messages to farmers in a selected zone in Oromia National Regional State. This thesis arguesrnthat the region has not achieved development dreams set by the Ethiopian Government due to inattention tornlanguage use and communication strategies. In order to address the issue, this study investigated therninteractive process between the change agents and the farmers. Arguing from Critical Discourse Analysisrn(CDA) theoretical position, this study sought to explain how the opaque and transparent structuralrnrelationships of dominance and power are constituted, expressed and legitimized in the discourse practices asrnobserved in the interactions between the development agents and the farmers. In this way, the thesis exploredrnhow discourse choices, communication strategies, power and ideology impact on meaning making andrndissemination of development information. This study is therefore situated within the Mixed Method Researchrnparadigm and used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collections, namely Questionnaire, KeyrnInformant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions, Document Analysis and Direct Observation, to gather datarnthat were used to advance the arguments in this thesis. While recognizing the fruitfulness of these tools inrnexhaustive data collection, the study also used them to triangulate the data gathered thus verifying the datarnand ensuring reliability and validity. The data were analyzed quantitatively using elementary descriptivernstatistics and qualitatively using an analytical framework developed by Fairclough (2004) CDA models. Thernanalysis revealed that the three modes of communication (the phonic, the graphic and the multimodal)rncommonly used in development communication in the study area are not common to the target community.rnMore often than not the modes are not sensitive to the cultural and situational contexts of the interaction, thusrnignoring the communities’ schemata, concerns and preferences. This results into disorder of discourse, whichrnin turn hampers interactive farmers’ participation that is deemed critical to agricultural development.rnFurthermore, the language preferences of the change agents construct development as an elites’ exercise,rnthereby stereotyping development as something disseminated by elites. The thesis also concluded thatrnlanguage is a powerful capital that is used to construct and construe reality hence influencing change inrnsocial structures and human relationships. Language reflects social status and the power imbalances amongrnparticipants involved in development interaction and this impact on the way development messages arerndisseminated and interpreted. Ultimately, the thesis concluded that the language and communicationrnstrategies used in development initiatives in the study area, do not aid effective communication and commonrnunderstanding of development objectives. Finally, based on the best practices observed from the field and thernanalysis of some of the communication strategies used, this study recommended practically important pointsrnthat can be used to enhance communication in accelerating sustainable agricultural developmentrninteractions.rnKey words: Language use, Communication Strategies, Modes of Communication, and SustainablernAgricultural Development

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