 Snow-capped mountains, green valleys, peaceful rivers, and rich culture. This is Nepal. Not only a feast for the eyes, but also home to hundreds of thousands of upland and lowland farmers who depend on rice for their food needs. Many of these farmers are economically and socially marginalized and are often the poorest. Traditionally, Nepalese hill farmers rely on rice production for subsistence. Most of them grow traditional varieties. The average rice yield in Nepal has been around 2.5 tons per hectare. Upland rice farming is highly labor-intensive and taxing, especially for women. Besides their household chores, women do most of the farm work, such as taking care of animals, weeding, drying, and milling. The lack of new modern varieties, quality seeds, and better crop management technologies and limited access to public services are just some of the many concerns of upland farmers. The International Fund for Agricultural Development, or IFAD, provided funding to the International Rice Research Institute to implement a project in Nepal. The project is called Managing Rice Landscapes in the Marginal Uplands for Household Food Security and Environmental Sustainability. In the mountainous areas of Nepal, farmers grow rice in both upland and lowland fields. The project is focused on developing improved technologies for managing these rice landscapes. The project has adopted a farmer participatory approach. Farmers are highly involved from the beginning, during implementation, and in the decision-making process. Research on potential technologies is conducted at village-based field research sites. It is done with the collaboration of the farmers and national research organizations. The project in Nepal collaborates with Alamjan Campus in Sandarbazar, of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, or IAES. And the National Rice Research Program, or NRRP, of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council in Kathmandu. In this video, we shall see the technologies that were identified, tested, and disseminated under the project. It will also show how the farmers benefit from these technologies. IAES researchers, with the collaboration of the farmers, identified and tested in several suitable upland and lowland rice varieties. From these varieties, farmers chose Radha 32 and IR 554355. These farmers came from several villages in Lamjong, Gorka, and Tanahun districts. Radha 32 can be grown in both the lowland and upland. Another variety, IR 554355, has consistently outperformed the preferred local varieties. Farmers like it because of its higher number of field grains and straw yield. Farm animals like the soft straw. The straw feeds farm animals such as cattle and buffalo during the dry season. From the IAES assisted areas, we have seen and heard the reasons why farmers preferred and adopted the varieties mentioned compared with others. Let us now travel to East Nepal. The National Rice Research Program assisted area of the project is in Mahotary district, which has two research sites, Patu and Babsi. Here, farmers preferred NR 601.5, RHS 397, BM 9855, and Hardina 31. Farmers chose these varieties for their higher yield, good eating quality, and suitability to a riceweed cropping pattern. BM 9855 and NR 601.5 also perform well in rain-fed lowland and irrigated conditions. The ability to grow spring rice is a blessing for farmers in the lower hills because they can grow two crops in one year. One in spring and one in the summer. Hardinath-1 is the most popular spring-season variety in the Turiya Hills. The variety is popular because it matures early, which allows growing a second crop. Hardinath-1 is also high yielding and has good milling and eating qualities. It is also tolerant of drought and major rice diseases. The project distributed Hardinath-1 seeds to farmers in Babsi and Patu villages. The seeds were also distributed to farmers in seven neighboring districts with a collaboration of the district agricultural development offices for varietal demonstration and wider dissemination. Good quality seeds are important inputs of production for farmers. Farmers rely on good seeds for their next harvest. In the IAES Assisted Areas, the project helped enterprising farmers to organize themselves into commercial seed production and marketing groups. Thus far, two groups have been formed, one in Lamjong district and the other in Tanahun. The groups are producing rice and maize seeds. The two groups were provided with information on group formation and government assistance, technical advice, training on scientific seed production, technical monitoring and supervision of seed production plots, and knowledge on seed marketing. These efforts have increased the capacity of farmers to produce seeds. These has also helped them to market and meet local demand for the popular varieties. This endeavor has improved the availability of good quality seeds of new and old popular varieties in the area. Seedling Broadcasting, a labor-saving technique as opposed to transplanting, was also recommended to farmers in 2007. The method saves them up to 60% in labor compared with traditional transplanting. It has significantly lessened the backbreaking job of transplanting. The project, in collaboration with community-based farmer groups and district offices, also introduced prop diversification options such as seasonal and off-season vegetable growing. One can see the farmer's kitchen gardens filled with vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, broadleaf mustard, cucumber, sponge gourd and radish. Farmers such as Karki, Kushiram, Kalpana and others say that aside from rice on their table, they also get added income from the vegetables they grow. Cash income from vegetables has enabled these farmers to buy food and other items for their families. As the project ends in 2009, upland farmers in Nepal have become more aware of new rice varieties and technologies and have started adopting those that suit their needs. They are now growing vegetables which translates into cash income. They know now whom to approach when they have questions on crop technologies and their firsthand experience in doing research with the scientists has enriched their local knowledge. As farmers continue to adopt and share the technologies they developed, we hope that more upland farmers in Nepal will not only have enough food on their table but also have extra income for their families' needs. Now that is what we mean by hope.