Don't trust the sky, don't trust the stars and don't trust the oxen...

One a year the world should expect the “royal entertainment,” amused by Cambodia’s stout royal oxen.


Many look at the plowing ceremony as nothing more than a traditional entertainment and not as scientific projection, but plenty of badly informed farmers still believe in such a forecast.

Cambodians should not bank on the well-fed oxen to help them with what they should plan in the upcoming season.

Cambodian rice growers and farmers should learn from those countries which produce best quality and top quantity agricultural products without relying on the prediction of the oxen or without depending on the sky.

More educational and financial resources are needed to help Cambodians compete with their neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand which have mastered in rice growing for many years.

Turing the plowing ceremony to become an educational event may help Cambodian farmers plant their crops better or do it more than once a year!

Don't just depend on the sky, don't depend on the stars and don't depend on the royal oxen; we must depend on ourselves-- Atahi Attano Neatho!

Learn and work smarter!

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Cambodia's royal oxen fail to predict rice harvest


(AFP) – 7 hours ago

PHNOM PENH — Cambodia's royal oxen shunned rice grain on Saturday during an ancient ceremony to predict the country's agricultural fortunes -- prompting fears of a poor rice harvest among superstitious farmers.

Cambodia's annual royal plowing ceremony marks the beginning of the kingdom's planting season (AFP, null)

King Norodom Sihamoni presided over the ritual in a park outside the palace where thousands of people watched royal astrologers observing the animals' behaviour.

After a symbolic ploughing of a portion of the field, a pair of oxen were led to seven dishes -- rice, corn, beans, sesame, grass, water and alcohol -- laid out on trays.

They were seen eating only corn and beans, allowing the palace's chief astrologer Kang Ken to declare that this year's corn and beans harvests will be bountiful.

The astrologer did not spell out to the crowd what it meant for the rice yield, sparking concern among farmers.

"I am very worried that we will not have a good rice harvest," farmer Ros Makara, 52, told AFP after the ceremony, which marks the start of Cambodia's rainy season, traditionally the time to plant rice.

"But I will try my best to grow rice. I do not totally rely on the prediction," he added.

While still taken seriously by many rural Cambodians in this deeply superstitious country, ploughing ceremony predictions have been called into question in recent years.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.