This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID’s 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Principally based on Projects R8269, R7122, and R8071. Rice varieties bred in the Nepal lowlands and introduced to farmers in similar environments in the
High Barind Tract of Bangladesh are spreading rapidly. Stagnant yields of rice in the Barind mean
that incomes of resource-poor farmers are falling. But big increases in quantity and quality, and
early ripening varieties that allow a follow-on cash crop, could improve lives. Farmers managed the
trials of the Nepalese rice themselves. They found the new varieties both yielded more and matured
earlier. In less than two years, two-thirds of the farmers were growing the new varieties. And nearly
half share seed with other farmers. Development organisations are promoting them and villages are
already organising community-based seed production.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental
Impact. Attached PDF (20 pp.) taken from the CD.