Cambodian farmers deploy scarecrows to ward off virus

A woman sets up a scarecrow in front of her home in Cambodia's Kampong Cham province on October 11, 2020, as superstitious residents in the region set up the sentries known as "Ting Mong" in Khmer to ward off the COVID-19 coronavirus during the pandemic. - AFP

KAMPONG CHAM (Cambodia), Oct 11 (AFP): Armed with a stick, a floral-shirted scarecrow with a plastic pot for a head stands guard in front of a rural Cambodian home -- a sentry erected by superstitious farmers to ward off the coronavirus.

Known as "Ting Mong" in Khmer, the creatively rendered scarecrows often pop up in villages that have been hard-hit by infectious diseases like dengue or water-borne diarrhoea.