Exercise for Session 3: Making Objectives SMARTer

Please read the following rationale and objectives for a project titled: ‘Development of
Upland Rice Varieties for Green Land’. The objectives are not SMART (and indeed
the project was not funded).

Using the material you have, and your imagination about how the project will work,
working individually, (a) identify at least one or two ways in which the objectives are not
SMART, and (b) rewrite them to make them SMARTer. [Note: the rationale section is
not very readable. It is the original, which did not follow the suggestions of this seminar!]

Rationale: As the gap between the production deficit and the demand for rice widens,
rice-growing represents one of the biggest challenges for Green Land. Two types of
rice-growing systems exist: upland rice (rainfed farming), which represents 80% of the
total area under rice, and lowland rice (irrigation farming).

New varieties and technologies have been developed by XXXX and YYYY, but their
dissemination is still limited. Main reasons are that technologies are not adapted to the
present agro-socioeconomic environment and that the grain quality of the new varieties
does not correspond to the market demand. Irrigated rice in Green Land is mainly grown
in a crop rotation system where decreasing soil fertility and weeds are the major
constraints. Traditional varieties are dominating. Irrigated rice is grown in a multitude of
different water regimes. A recently introduced virus disease, rice yellow streak virus, is
one of the major constraints of this farming system.

This project should strengthen the existing rice components in the Farming Systems
Experiment Stations. The goal is to verify in on-farm tests and subsequently disseminate
improved rice-cropping systems that are adapted to a large variety of agro-
socioeconomic conditions. Another important element of the project is to bring the grain
quality in line with the demand of consumers and processing industries.

Objectives:
 development of upland rice varieties adapted to an extensive cropping system with
low inputs, resistant to the main existing biotic and abiotic threats, and with a grain
quality corresponding to the demand.
 development of improved upland rice-cropping systems for different levels of
intensity and degrees of fixation (fallow of different lengths).
 development of irrigated rice varieties resistant to rice streak virus and adapted to
partial inundation.