Projects Undertaken Through the Initiative of His Majesty the King
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Magsaysay Award for work well done "Royal Project"

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The effort of His Majesty the King in improving the lot of the hilltribes in the North received international recognition when the Royal Project was awarded this year's Magsaysay Award, Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, in international understanding. Prince Bhisadej Rajani, director of the Project, went to Manila last September (in 1988) to receive the award.
The Magsaysay Award Foundation's board of trustees cited the Royal Project "for demonstrating through a concerted national and international effort in Northern Thailand that temperate-climate cash crops offer hilltribes a visible alternative to the opium poppy."
Prince Bhisadaj said that before he left for the Philippines to receive Magsaysay Award, His Majesty told him : "The Royal Project has been misunderstood fromm the very beginning. People have always thought that I initiated the project in my capacity as King; in fact I launched it for humanitarian reasons and out of compassion for lass privileged people, some too poor to buy blankets to ward off the cold in the mountains where they lives."
In the past hilltribes roamed the mountains of Chiang Mai, planting opium poppies -- the only cash crop that they new how to plant -- in the only way they knew how to do it -- by slash-and-burn cultivation, thus destroying forests and important water resources.
During a visit to Doil Ang Khang in Fang District of Chiang Mai in 1969, His Majesty came upon land which was cleared and then abandoned by the hilltribes after it had been depleted of opium poppies. Seeing that hilltribe villagers who had settled in the area grew Japanese apricots which thrived very well in the cold climate, the King asked researchers to find ways to help the hilltribes by introducing improved varieties of Japanese apricot and other temperate fruit trees.
The Ang Khang Royal Station was set up, and various foreign governments gave help by contributing equipments, tree cuttings, seeds and seedlings, and technical know-how. Volunteers from various local government agencies and universities developed the land, provided irrigation and taught the hilltribes to plant fruit trees, and while the trees were growing, the hilltribes were encouraged and taught how to grow flowers, vegetables and mushrooms to augment their income.
The project has been such a success that depending on which month they go to Doi Ang Khang, visitors are now greeted by the sweet smell of ripening pears or apricots, peaches or plums, persimmons or apples, and a veriety of flowers normally seen only in temperate and subtropical countries. And the hills are blanketed by cabbages, broccoli, peas, carrots, brussels, sprouts, potatoes, tomatoes, green petioles and other vegetables, as well as forest trees and bamboo planted to rehabilitate the forest destroyed years ago by the hilltribes.
The King's Royal Project did not confine itself to Doi Ang Khang. Over the years it has spread to other mountain villages not olly in Chiang Mai but also in Chiang Rai, Mae Hong Son, Lamphun and Lumpang. Now it has six research stations and 21 development centers helping 265 villages on the hills and mountains of these five northern provinces. Apart from agricultural development the hilltribes were also taught fishery and proper health care and nutrition. Roads to facilitate the marketing of products and schools to teach their children how to read and write were also built.
And as the villagers earn thousands of bath each year selling strawberries and other temperate fruits, vegetables, and flowers both dried and fresh, the cultivation of opium poppies has been reduced by 85 per cent. Yet work goes on for the Royal Project, which is run with money from His Majesty the King's own pocket. For apart from providing the hilltribes with technical know-how, seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, it also undertakes the marketing of the hilltribes's products. It has delivery trucks which fetch the produce from the various stations and bring them to Chiang Mai University compound, where the crops are packed for distributions in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, or processed into pickles, jams or wines.
"The Royal Project is unique in that it provides everything -- from irrigation to seeds, fertilizers and pesticides and technical know-how, to finding markets for the farm products," said Prince Bhisadej in an interview.
"But only the technical know-how is given free," he added, "as the aim of His Majesty the King -- and the Royal Project -- is to help the hilltribres help themselves. If they do not have the cash to pay for the things they need, they can pay after the Royal Project has sold their products."
The Royal Project deducts 20 per cent from the proceeds of the sales but even then, in the peak season the hilltribes collectively make more then 205 million bath a month from selling their farm produce.
During the early stages of the Royal Project, His Majesty the King started a canning factory in Fang District, to create a market for the agricultural crops as well as to solve the problem of spoilage. Later, when the Royal Project expanded its activities to other provinces, another canning factory was built in Mae Chan District of Chiang Rai. Now the two factories produce canned tomato paste, bamboo shoot and baby corn; lychees, peaches and strawberries in heavy syrup; and other crops produced by the hilltribes as well as by lowland farmers. Like the fresh fruits, fresh and dried flowers, and vegetable, the canned products are marketed under the Doi Kham trademark and are available in most supermarkets.
The hilltribes that once roamed the hills in the North now enjoy a decent life as they cultivate their land, all because Thailand has a King who is genuinely concerned with improving the lot of the rural poor -- a King who has dedicated his whole life to the service of his people

Normita Thongtham, King Bhumibol the great, "See The Highlights of the Royal obligation, P.105
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