Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center
Cambodia: Agriculture in Transition. The Example of Rice
Festival of the Sacred Plough
Rice, a cultural symbol: A farmer's offering to Buddha (Pagoda near Battambang)
Plowing with a single-shank plow (Kompong Cham)
A countryside dotted with green patches: the nurseries (Kompong Cham)
Bundling the seedlings from the nursery
...in preparation for transplanting
Transplanting
Always as a team (Siem Reap)
During the rice growth, strengthening of the dikes and removal of weeds
.. and spreading of fertilizer (Samroang)
The time for the harvest has arrived (Kompong Chnang)
With a sickle...
..a sickle with a hook...(Kratie)
Always in team..(Kratie)
After the harvest, carts come to collect the rice (Oudong)
Piling up the harvested ears of rice (Kompong Trach)
Making a sheaf (Kompong Trach)
Taking a few ears of rice to make a tie...(Kompong Chnang)
...twisting them together...(Kompong Trach)
And wrapping the sheaf with the tie (Kompong Cham)
..turning the bundle (Kompong Cham)
Tied bundle (Kompong Trach)
Piling up the bundles (Kompong Trach)
Sometimes the rice is gathered in bundles without being tied (Oudong)
Tied or not, the bundles (Kompong Chnang)
...are carried to the cart (Oudong)
"Loading the cart while the cattle graze (Kratie)
Harnessing the cattle to the full cart (Oudong)
The bundles of rice are transferred to the threshing area by cart (Kompong Trach)
..sometimes by foot (Kompong Cham)
Or by handcart (Oudong)
Manual threshing with a stick (Oudong)
Sometimes without a stick (Dam Dek)
Collective threshing (near Takeo)
Throwing the rice sheaves after threshing (Oudong)
Sweeping the rice grains (Oudong)
Drying (Kompong Chang)
Winnowing (Kompong Chnang)
Piling up the straw (Kompong Trach)
Transferring the straw to the farm, either with tarps (Oudong)
Or on the back of a person (Kompong Trach)
Threshed rice mound (Kompong Cham)
After the harvest, the straw will be used as feed for the cattle (Kompong Chnang)
The use of the tiller—more and more often of Chinese origin—is becoming widespread
Tractors are beginning to appear (Kompong Trach)
Combine harvesters are now found throughout Cambodia (Kompong Chnang)
Small trucks are beginning to handle the transportation of rice from the rice fields (Oudong)
What will be the future of the young cattle herder? (Prey Veng)