The use of modern technologies in agricultural management has led to a tremendous increase in food production but at the cost of natural resource degradation and environmental pollution. The use of indigenous techniques on the other hand keeps the environment safe and conserves natural resources. Thus, for long-term sustainability of agriculture, the blending of indigenous traditional techniques with modern techniques is of utmost importance. Integrated use of organic amendments (manures, compost, biochar, nutrient-rich pond soil, agro-wastes and bio fertilizers) along with chemical fertilizers not only saves 20–30% of fertilizers dosage but enhances soil fertility and increases yield up to 15%. For enhancing nutrient use efficiency, need-based application of nitrogen through the use of a modern-day simple and affordable tools like leaf colour chart (LCC) not only saves 10–25% of N fertilizers but also reduces insect pest attack and groundwater pollution. The practice of omitting phosphorus application during the kharif season in rice–wheat, cotton–wheat and maize–wheat cropping systems reduced the cost of cultivation without compromising yield. The adoption of conservation agriculture helps in managing huge quantities of crop residues and reducing their burning in the fields. As the groundwater table of Punjab is falling at a rate of 50 cm per year, practices like laser land levelling, following intermittent irrigation in paddy, i.e. irrigation at 2 days drainage interval, late transplanting of paddy (after 20th June), growing short-duration rice cultivars (PR 126, PR 130 and PR131), small plot size, crop diversification, i.e. replacing rice with basmati and other less water requiring crops, mulching and microirrigation need to be adopted by the farmers on case-to-case basis. In wide row crops like maize, cotton and sugarcane, the seasonal evaporation loss was 28–32% less with mulching than without mulch. Straw mulching also saved irrigation water by 120–400 mm in these crops and increased the water use efficiency by 9.4–13.4%. About 10–30% loss occurring due to diseases and insect pests in different crops could be minimized by using modern scientific technologies blended with old traditional practices like adopting an integrated pest management system.