MOIST completed its three-year collaboration with Dr. Kurniatun Hairiah and her students at the Brawijaya University in Malang, Indonesia, studying the use of fast-growing leguminous cover crops followed by trees for controlling Imperata cylindrica, one of the most pervasive weeds in Asia and elsewhere, which takes over low-fertility soils.

In a follow-up to her 1999 fallow characterization, Cristina Guerrero facilitated more farmer cross-visits and completed several technical booklets to share rattan cultivation practices between farmers in Indonesia and the Philippines. The booklets documenting rattan planting techniques in rice fallows are available in both Tagalog and Indonesian languages.

Based on a workshop held in Cavité, Philippines the previous summer, a 421-page publication entitled Shifting Cultivation: Towards Sustainability and Resource Conservation in Asia, was completed in June 2001. It presents practices from throughout Asia that can improve the lives of rural people by sustainably and productively modifying traditional land and forest management practices. This collaborative project was co-sponsored by CIIFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, and the International Centre for Research on Agroforestry (ICRAF), with the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) serving as host and publisher. (Contact IRRI for ordering information.)