The world's rainfed lowlands offer substantial potential for increasing rice production. Population pressure on arable land is low. The area planted is increasing, but yields remain low. Farmers have developed a range of practices that address variability across sites as well as heterogeneity within local ecosystems. Production constraints Uncertainty characterizes rice farming in rainfed lowlands.
Crops suffer droughts, floods, pests, weeds, and soil constraints.
Since most rainfed lowlands depend on erratic rainfall, conditions are diverse and unpredictable. Understanding how farmers' practices help reduce risk and assure some production is essential to developing improved technologies for the rainfed lowlands. Most rainfed lowland rice farmers are poor and must cope with unstable yields and financial risks. They adapt their cropping practices to the complex risks, potentials, and problems they face. They typically grow traditional, photoperiod-sensitive cultivars and invest their labor instead of purchasing inputs.