Extensive areas of the Gangetic Basin in eastern India are plateau uplands subject to severe drought in the dry season and prior to the arrival of the monsoon rains. Unreliable and highly variable rainfall during the monsoons can also restrict crop potential. Other rice production constraints are weeds, infertile soils and seed quality. The intervention strategy is to introduce technologies suitable for local conditions while shortening the time to harvest, which would allow some leeway for planting of postharvest nonrice crops for cash marketings. A diversified and intensified cropping system would give farm households better food security, and they would gradually generate sufficient surplus to enable them to invest further in their farms.