Using participatory plant breeding, poor and marginal farmers in Eastern India, who previously grew old and low yielding land races, produced several new varieties of upland rice. Self-help groups produced truthful seed of these rice varieties, with production rising from 39 in 2002-2003 to 81 t in 2003-2004. It was expected to be nearly 300 tonne of certified seed between 2005 and 2006. Foundation and breeder seeds were also produced in 2005. Demand for the seed of upland rice varieties was very great, at about 690 tonne. Farmers adopted the new varieties on 8 to 63 percent of the upland areas, improving the food security of households from an average of seven months to ten months. The average rice selling ability of a household improved from 34 kg to 80 kg per year. Nearly 80 percent households reported more than 10 percent improvement in their income after growing the new varieties.