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Background The international community and national agricultural research systems (NARS) recognize the importance of supporting smallholders in order to reduce poverty and promote the food security status of some of the most vulnerable groups in the world. South Asia has the largest food-insecure population in the world, and in several farming systems in the region, rice is the most important staple crop. This study examined the extent to which agricultural research has prioritized the greatest factors that constrain smallholder productivity in those farming systems. It also explored the degree to which research has connected production constraints and environmental challenges faced by rice smallholders. Results Estimated congruency ratios suggested that peer-reviewed research has been heavily skewed towards abiotic production constraints. Meanwhile, socio-economic production constraints had received relatively little attention from the research community, even though socio-economic constraints account for more than 22% of rice yield losses in the South Asian farming systems examined. Furthermore, although research publications have tended to concentrate on the most important rice production constraints and linked those constraints to challenges identified by environmental disciplines, there are many medium and small production constraints which have received little research attention. This is despite the fact that the sum of these less severe constraints represents the largest contribution to total rice yield losses. Conclusions While national and international research bodies are well aware of the challenges smallholders face, there seems to be a lack of coordination in setting research priorities, since there are many areas, particularly in the social sciences field, which are not receiving the research attention that they warrant, when compared to the opportunity improvements in this sector could provide—as demonstrated in this study. This suggests that steps need to be taken in providing the research community with incentives and support in understanding these ‘needs’ to increase the impact of their research. Increasing the level of accountability of research institutions to smallholders’ and rural populations’ needs and promoting participatory farmer-focused research may help in improving research coordination and improving livelihoods by reducing poverty.

Rice production constraints and ‘new’ challenges for South Asian smallholders: insights into de facto research priorities