Farmers eagerly host these furry guests in their orchards and collect their excrement – Cambodia’s answer to manure
When life gives you bats, collect guano.
Farmers in the backwaters of Cambodia have lived by this rule for as long as they can remember. Take Hoerm Oerun in the bucolic southeast, for example. Every day, the grandmother of four squats in her orchard in Kandal province between a pagoda and patchwork of paddies that gives capital Phnom Penh its daily rice.
Oerun’s trees bear no fruit. They have been barren for more than three decades. Instead, she sweeps at bat droppings: pungent nutbrown pellets that collect in murky rings below her trees and act as a valuable natural fertiliser. “Most people here are farmers,” Oerun says, “and most of them use the guano.” With a wink, she pats the swollen sack at her feet.
Oerun has forged a lucrative and symbiotic relationship with the diminutive creatures whose guano feeds her family, not to mention local crops. Bat farmers like her can make USD22 a month in guano sales per roost – and with some harvesting from over 20 roosts, this can add up to over USD5,000 a year. With more than 30 trees to her name, Oerun can collect 12 kilograms of the precious waste per day. The substance has even been dubbed “black gold” by conservation biologist Neil Furey, who specialises in researching Southeast Asian bats.
Denne historien er fra AG 01/2018 - 129-utgaven av ASIAN Geographic.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra AG 01/2018 - 129-utgaven av ASIAN Geographic.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Revealed Doctor Yellow
Japan Railways' special lemony Shinkansen is a rare sight to behold
The Mighty Yellow
Over 5,000 kilometres long and flowing through nine provinces and autonomous regions, the Yellow River is China's second largest, after the Yangtze, while its basin is deemed the cradle of Chinese civilisation
Wildlife Big Yellow Beauty
The popular "amelanistic" form of the Burmese python is considered among the most beautiful snakes - if that's your sort of thing
All That Glitters Is Gold
From Turkey to China, the yellow metal plays a central role in cultural practices and is coveted as a symbol of affluence and status
Chengdu Hotel Spotlight TRIKA TSANG INTERNATIONAL HOTEL
For an authentic taste of Tibet in the heart of Chengdu, the most luxurious option is the majestic Trika Tsang International Hotel.
Conservation Yellow in Peril
While the demand for use in traditional Chinese medicine is putting seahorses under pressure, it is damaging non-selective fishing that is driving depletion
History Spiritual Rebirth
During the Spanish Golden Age, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan achieved the first European navigation to Asia via the Pacific, arriving in the Philippines in 1521 and claiming the islands for Spain. But by converting the first Filipinos to Catholicism, Magellan also instigated the Christianisation of the entire archipelago, a spiritual rebirth celebrated through the two most important festivals in the Philippines - Fiesta Señor and Sinulog.
Green Dreams
With its tea plantations and rice paddies, dense jungles and expansive forests, the region is well known as a green paradise. But many of the most impressive Asian landscapes have names you may never have heard of. Journey with us as we reveal just some of the incredible locations that make the rest of the world green with envy!
Life On The Edge
In the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, in the remote northern Russian Far East, indigenous ethnic groups like the Chukchi and the Yupik live in the most extreme conditions, hunting seals in their traditional kayaks as they have for millennia
The Karakoram Anomaly Decoded
For decades, scientists have believed that glaciers in the Karakoram Range are defying the trend of those across the globe-resisting glacial melt due to human-induced global warming. But as we trek up the Karakoram's second-longest glacier in July, as the United Nations announces the world's hottest ever month on record, does the melting ice beneath our feet suggest the so-called Karakoram Anomaly is slowing? Or is there a ray of hope it will continue to delay the inevitable?
