Indonesia has a firm commitment to increase farmers' welfare through the implementation of various programs of agricultural development. During the last three decades, food, fisheries, and livestock production increased substantially and rural poverty decreased at a sizable rate. These agricultural development programs are continuously improved in accordance with the dynamic changes in the strategic environment, internationally as well as domestically, including those related to economic globalization. A model of commodity based and agribusiness-oriented farming systems was designed in order to increase productivity, efficiency, and farmers' income. New elements to these farming systems include the emphasis placed on the importance of market orientation in product development, full farmers' participatory approach in new technology adoption, and close guidance by researchers and extension workers in program implementation. To assess its suitability for each locally specific socio-agro-ecosystem, since 1995/1996 a rice-based farming system has been introduced at the farm level. This assessment activity is relatively large, involving more than 100,000 farmers and 46,000 hectares of paddy fields. In the present paper, the concept of this new approach to farming systems and present results of the assessment are discussed. In brief, the new approach of rice-based farming systems is promising in terms of increase of farming efficiency and farmers' income.