My informants' favourites were usually varieties of non-glutinous rice with a good yield, which, in effect, represented their staple food. Apau Ping farmers are continually looking for and trying out new varieties. For example, a female informant grew a particular rice variety in the best soil of her swidden for two planting seasons, but the yield was disappointing. As another farmer was getting very good yields from the same variety, she concluded that its character was not suited to her own. Other farmers, the older women in the village, concurred in this conclusion.
Farmers say that they look for better matches when they try new varieties.
But varieties which do not yield well, even when planted in good black soil, are abandoned, since a poor harvest is a sign to the farmers that the varieties in question are 'not well matched' to their kepribadian. It may also be the case, as the farmers themselves believe, that all currently available upland rice varieties will grow well enough in any plot as long as it has black soil. And it certainly seems relevant that farmers in Apau Ping have to collect and put aside their seed rice at harvest time, so that their decisions about the rice varieties to be planted usually have to be made months before they know which plots and soils they will be using the next planting season. If such factors, either singly or in combination, are operating in the Apau Ping case, it would not be surprising if farmers selected particular rice varieties for planting primarily on other grounds than their suitability for particular swidden sites. Further evidence might be the fact that the farmers make no reference to matching varying environmental conditions when they give their reasons for planting many different varieties of rice.