Thereafter I asked the villagers in the neighbourhood about the past year. They said that they had got in the harvest and pointed to a heap of rice. We went in for a closer look. The rice had grown well but did not produce so many grains, about two or three to an ear. The production could have been estimated at about one "bucket" or less per "rai". On inquiry the villagers explained that it was due to lack of rain. They had sown the rice, but when it came to transplanting the seedlilngs, there was no water. They had to make holes in the sand and stick the seedlings in them. In the daytime the plant withered and drooped, but at night it straightened up with the dew. In the end it developed ears but not so many grains of rice. That was a very revealing lesson and they spoke to us very straightforwardly. This is a proof that rice is a very rugged plant, surviving with just a little humidity from the dew. Although that was ordinary rice, not upland rice it could survive, If we only gave a little help, there could be and improvement and the people could survive. The project to be done need not be a big one to meet with success. It could be a modest project. So it dawned on me that in such a place rainfall is not small, but it just did not come at the right time. When it rains, it is not needed; when it is needed, it does not rain. So rice is not plentiful.