  We present a Next-to-Leading Order calculation of the cross section for the
leptoproduction of large-$E_{\bot}$ hadrons and we compare our predictions with
H1 data on the forward production of $\pi^0$. We find large higher order
corrections and an important sensitivity to the renormalization and
factorization scales. These large corrections are shown to arise in part from
BFKL-like diagrams at the lowest order.
