The project “Developing a System of Temperate and Tropical Aerobic Rice in Asia (STAR) undertook strategic research to develop sustainable aerobic rice systems for water- scarce irrigated and rainfed environments in Asia. Aerobic rice is a production system in which specially developed rice varieties are grown in nonsaturated soils without ponded water just like wheat or maize. The target environments are areas where water is too short to grow conventional lowland rice, either rainfed or supplementary irrigated.

The rate of forest clearing by small farmers in the humid forest zone (HFZ) of Cameroon increased significantly in a period of economic crisis dating from 1986. A random sample survey of 648 households was conducted in 54 villages in the HFZ to understand the effect of the crisis and of a 1996 currency devaluation on the practices of small farmers, and the effect of these practices on forest cover change.

Outlines an economic evaluation of an improved surface drainage technology, using the broad-bed-maker (BBM) on-farm in four different vertisol areas of the Ethiopian highlands. Presents data on crops and number of areas covered for the on-farm drainage technology, on cost structure of the BBM, and on human and oxen labour input in traditional seed covering and the construction of the BBM.

The major objectives of this workshop are to sharpen the focus of ILRI's ecoregional research, to further identify commonalities in tools and new methods that can enable ILRI to do effective transregional research, and to identify improvements to the way in which ILRI does ecoregional research.