While riding along Route 6 recently, the busiest scenery isn’t the tourist buses anymore, but these tractors loaded with golden hay and rice straw.

I used to hear that farming in Cambodia was entirely up to fate, and that small-scale farming carried huge risks. But this first-hand observation has given me a new perspective: “Large-scale collaboration” is quietly taking place on this land.

As you can see, there are not only piles of bundled straw by the roadside but also harvesters shuttling back and forth. This large-scale planting model significantly reduces the “ecological pressure” on rice. If it’s just a single isolated plot, sparrows and pests will focus all their attention on you; but with thousands of acres connected, the risk is spread thin.

More importantly, mechanized harvesting and secondary straw processing (used as animal feed or fuel) only become economically viable through this large-scale model.

These straw-laden tractors on the road are the true colors of progress in rural Cambodia.