Assessment of traditional farming knowledge for integration into modern sustainable practices

Abstract:

A surprising fact about Sylhet’s farmers: many still use lunar calendars for planting decisions, and their timing often coincides with agrometeorological optima that modern advisories recommend independently. This research documented and evaluated 47 traditional farming practices across 12 villages in Sylhet division, Bangladesh, through structured interviews with 240 farmers and on-farm validation trials during 2021–2023. Practices were scored for agronomic effectiveness (field validation), ecological soundness (expert panel), and compatibility with modern extension packages. Of the 47 practices, 23 (49%) scored above 7 out of 10 on combined effectiveness, including indigenous seed selection methods, mixed-species cropping patterns, and soil fertility indicators based on weed flora. Traditional pest management, by contrast, scored lower (mean 5.4) and was the category most likely to benefit from modern supplementation. A hybrid knowledge framework incorporating the 23 high-scoring practices into standard extension messaging was pilot-tested in four villages and raised adoption rates by 34% compared with conventional advisory alone. The results show that selective integration—not wholesale replacement—is the most effective way to modernise smallholder agriculture in north-eastern Bangladesh.