Upland rice indicates low-tillage cultivation of a paddy on fields that are well-drained. Upland (or dryland) rice is commonly characterised as having less yield potential and, therefore, little to offer for improvement of farmers’ livelihoods or national food security. D.H. Grist, author of a major handbook of rice, comments that “[d]ryland paddy cultivation continues to be neglected(…) and is frowned upon by governments because of soil erosion danger resulting from shifting cultivation with which dryland paddy has been closely associated.”(1975: 195). This paper explores this negative association and places its origin in a colonial context. The Dutch efforts to improve rice cultivation in Indonesia provide evidence for the argument that land degradation was less a concern than commercial interest from the plantation sector. Upland rice, unlike lowland wet paddy fields, were considered not to contribute to the production for global markets. The negative ecological image of upland rice was a consequence rather than cause of the lack of attention upland rice received from governments and research institutes.