ABSTRACT
Traditional agricultural practices must be understood and conserved before they are lost with the rapid advance of modern agriculture in developing countries. If plant pathologists and other agricultural scientists are to be effective in addressing the problems of food production in developing countries, the traditional farming systems in those countries must be thoroughly understood. Most of the farmers in many developing countries are women. Traditional farming usually is based on agriculture that has been practiced for many generations. Colombian farmers probably had discovered over the centuries that cut seed would not produce a crop. Many projects intending to improve the lot of small farmers have failed due to a lack of understanding of how and why traditional agriculture works. Most practices for disease management used by traditional farmers in developing countries are cultural practices. Before World War II most agriculture in the corn belt of the US was essentially a crop and livestock system.
