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The Great Agricultural King.
    [left]HM the king graciously presents havested grain to HM the Queen during their royal visit to Ayutthaya province, the main agricultural land of Thailand.


    "If we fail to conserve forest, great problems will follow, as topsoil, is washed away, silting up dams and rivers, and causing flooding. This I learn when I was ten."


During the April 1959 visit of their Majesty the King and Queen to the Klai Kangwon royal place in the Hua Hin dictrict of Prachuab Kilikhan Province, His Majesty noticed the difficulties local people experienced just earning their dail living. Inspired by his own abilities to dffer practical assistance, he initiated a long-term project to solve the people's problems. From those early beginnings, there now exits a large number of royalty-initiated projects reaching all regions of the country supported by the construction of His Majesty's "working palaces" in Chiang Mai, Sakon Nakhon and Narathiwat, to be used as regional headquarters. From these regional headquarters, His Majestty closely monitors and follows practically every step of a project during its implementation.
Ever year, His Majesty spends some eight months in the provinces and it seems there is no corner of the Kingdom too remote for the King to visit.
Projects initiated by His Majesty have not only expanded throughout the Kingdom, with direct benifit of the people in the particular and society in general, but have also received acclaim internationally with experimental farmimg models being successfully replicated in the other developing countries in different regions of the world.
Two year ago on December 6, 1995, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation [FAO], humbly presented to His Majesty the "Agricola" gold medal, honouring him as an outstanding leader in agricultural and rural development. This distinguished award has been presented to only a small number of world leaders.
During his regular visits to all regions of the country, His Majesty has directed his afforts towards ensuring adequate water supplies for daily consumption by his people after realising that farmers, who constitute the majority of the Thai population, still rely upon rainwater and water from other natural sources because most of them reside outside the irrigation areas.
The first irrigation project under royal initiative was the Khao Tao Water Reservoir, constructed in Hua Hin dictrict of Prachuab Kilikhan Province in 1963 to tackle the problems of drought. The reservoir was completed and ready for use in the same year.
Six years after the first irrigation project, His Majesty disclosed his hidden interest, which dates back to his early days in school.
"...Some people might wonder why I took such a keen interest in irrigation and forests. When I was about ten years old, a teacher at school taught soil conversation in the science class . She made us constantly write down that we need to keep forests and mountains, lest soil is washed away quickly in torrents, resulting in great damage. That is the principle of forestry, soil conversation and irrigation. If we fail to conserve forest, great problems will follow, as topsoil, is washed away, silting up dams and rivers, and causing flooding. This I learn when I was ten.
It could be said that His Majesty has combined his keen interest and experience in water supply with the loving care he has towards his people in his struggle towards sustainable water resource development, both for cultivation and consumption. This includes water reservoirs, feeder dams, storage reservoirs in the watershed forests, dams for electricity generations, swamp clearance and flood prevention.
His Majesty's concern about water resources extends to the problems of water pollution in canals and rivers. He successfully invented the Chai Pattana Aerator, a floating motor which forces oxygen into water for treating polluted water.
The brief royal address entitled "Water is Life", has evolved into tangible projects, and one of the international seminars on water resources was actually named "Water is Life".
To date there are more than 2,000 Royal Initiated Projects troughout the Kingdom. Of these just under thirty-two percent are water resource development projects which reflect His Majesty's full realisation that water is the most essential basic need of human beings.
In our seemingly smaller world, there may be just one monarch who may by named "The Great Agricultural King." - His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. This might be because the majority of his subjects are farmers. FAO's director-general, Dr. Jacques Diouf cites His Majesty as one"... who tills the land, tends to water and natures the forest..."
A letter from Mr. A.Z. Abaidullah Khan, FAO regional representative for Asia and the Pacific also stated that "...His Majesty is the Agricultural King and therefore his palacegrounds are a magnificent field school for farmers and fisher-folk, foresters and forest dwellers..."

Long Live His Majesty The King
December 5.
Pornvilai Carr & Kraipit Phanvut (photo), "The Great Agricultural King", Holiday Time in Thailand, December 1997, P. 22-25.
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