Traditional Practices Pertaining to Sustainable Agriculture in North East India: A Review

Agriculture is the backbone of India’s rural economy. Sustainable agriculture needs to emerge at an accelerated pace integrated with technical and traditional knowledge. The advent of the concept of sustainable agriculture in the late eighties in the Indian agricultural scenario has evoked interest in indigenous traditional knowledge (ITK) that uses natural products to solve the problems pertaining to agriculture and allied activities. Since the past centuries, farmers have grown food and survived in harsh environments through the knowledge gained from their ancestors, where such a rich tradition of indigenous traditional knowledge has been interwoven with the agricultural practices followed by them. The northeast region is known for its rich natural scenic beauty, diversity, ethnicity, rare and unique wildlife, people, and culture. The traditional knowledge that the people possess in these regions is a precious resource that is shared through generations. However, such knowledge remains largely unreported, especially from the northeastern region, and has slowly been lost over time. Such knowledge needs to be harnessed along with some technical inputs to make sustainable development faster. There is a need to document and record such traditional knowledge which can act as a foundation for the creation of modern technology. This paper highlights the role and challenges of agriculture to the economy, the indigenous cultivation practices, and the traditional practices in Northeast India for sustainable agriculture.