Increased labour costs and area under irrigation, the development of modern early-maturing varieties and improved fertilizer and weed management techniques have encouraged many farmers in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand to switch from transplanted to direct-seeded flooded rice culture. This paper summarizes the development and spread of the technology for direct-seeded flooded rice in southeast Asia and the contribution made by research at IRRI and by national programmes. It covers research on crop establishment, varietal requirements, fertilizer management, weed control and economics and examines the advantages and disadvantages of direct-seeding compared with transplanting.

Field trials on okra over three seasons showed that the removal of the apical bud on the main stem at 3 or 4 weeks did not affect marketable fruit yield but that yield was reduced by about 39% when debudding was done at 5, 6 or 7 weeks. Apical debudding led to increased vegetative development, enhanced dry matter accumulation and reduced plant height. Removing the apical bud at weeks 3, 4 or 5 delayed the first harvest by 8, 15 or 18 days, respectively, compared to the undebudded control plants. It appears that okra can tolerate considerable apical damage during the vegetative stage, as can happen with insect attack, without serious loss of yield.

Five varieties of French bean of contrasting growth habit were grown at a range of plant densities. Most varieties yielded best at 30 plants m−2, but the bush type variety Contender yielded best at 50 plants m−5. The best yield was obtained from the semi-spreading variety Rufus.