Abstract:
Food is essential for every living organism. Survival without food is impossible. That is why food
and preservation are essential for all life on the earth. Food is a part of the culture. The availability of
food varies from region to region and season to season. Preservation refers to the prevention or
control of food spoilage by pests, animals, and mechanical factors. The use of indigenous knowledge
in food preservation and process is found to be thousands of years old today. These are passed down
from generation to generation through parents. Indigenous knowledge becomes the property of the
poor. Even in rural communities today, this knowledge is disappearing. The study aims to identify
indigenous techniques of food preservation among coastal dwellers in the Ampara District of the
Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. This study was carried out among the households from selected
coastal villages in the Ampara district of Sri Lanka. This is primarily a qualitative study with limited
application of quantitative methods. Both Primary and secondary data were collected to achieve the
objective of the study. Finally, the result of the study found that drying in sunlight, putting smoke
under fire, mixing ash, using sacks, burial in moist soil, roastering in the woodstove, harvesting by
hand and other preservation methods are the main indigenous techniques used by the people to
preserve the food in the study areas. However, the study also found that most of these preservative
techniques are becoming obsolete today, and that modern methods are being used more in food
preservation instead of indigenous methods in the study areas. Thus, this study suggested that all
stakeholders operating in the study areas must be involved to take steps in the future to protect the
indigenous techniques of food preservation.
