Dr. Hidetoshi Asai, Researcher of the Crop Livestock and Environment Division, received the “2017 Best Paper Award” from the Japanese Society for Tropical Agriculture for his paper entitled “Labour-saving practices for the external expansion of swidden agriculture for upland rice production in a mountainous area of ​​Laos” (Tropical Agriculture and Development 61:166-178 DOI: 10.11248 /jsta.61.166).

The paper analyzed the impact of labour-saving practices on farming management and the economic rationality in swidden agriculture of Laos based on field surveys conducted in a rural village in which herbicide application, outsourcing services in threshing and harvesting and late-maturing varieties for efficient harvesting during the dry season have rapidly expanded. The paper was selected for its contribution to the development of tropical agriculture and information dissemination. The award ceremony was held on March 10, 2018 at the 123rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Tropical Agriculture.