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Farmers Constitute the
majority of the population. One of the most quoted
saying in Thailand is that " The suffering of rice
farmers is the suffering of the Land", so their welfare
must always be the major concern of the Government. In
1953 the government set up a special office responsible
for rice development. The office's role was to develop
new high yield rice varieties commendable to consumers
tastes and preferences. Another objective was to
increase production to meet the growing market demands.
As a result, rice production was boosted, and in some
irrigated areas we succeeded in growing rice twice a
year. This means approximately 58-69 million rais or
9-11 million hectares are used and our outputs
reach about 20-21 million tons of paddy at present.
To the Thai people,
however, rice represents more than our staple food and
the main source of the national income in this age of
market economy. Our association with rice goes deeper
than that. Rice is in fact the basis of many aspects of
our culture and we consider ourselves to be foremost
among the nations belonging to the rice culture. Rice
planting and farming is an integral part of our culture.
The Thais pay respects to "the Rice Goddess". Rice is
always treated with due respect. It is handled with
care. For the rice farmers, even now it is still
customary to celebrate ceremoniously each and every step
of rice production; from ploughing, planting, harvesting
to storage. The blessing ceremony when the rice plant is
mature and ready for harvesting is considered an
important rite. Another popular ritual is the
Rain-Supplicating Rite to plead with the Rain God for
water for planting. Communal voluntary or cooperative
labour is traditional practice. Family members,
relatives, neighbours and anyone living in the same
village, group together and go from field to field to
help each other to plough, to transplants, to harvest
and to store the grains. This valuable custom creates
fraternal love and cooperative spirits among the
villagers, which I have said before, is in the danger of
disappearing.
Foremost among these is
the state ceremony relating to rice production. Most of
the traditional state ceremonies of Thailand have been
allowed to fade out with times, but His Majesty has
singled out the annual Royal Ploughing Ceremony to be
revived to symbolized the rice -based culture of
Thailand. Originally the ceremony represented the first
ploughing to remind the farmers that the ploughing
season had started, and the accompanying rituals were to
ensure a good harvest of that year. The revived
Ploughing Ceremony, presided over by His Majesty
himself, keeps to the original spirit of providing moral
support to the rice farmers and to wish them success.
The modern touches have bee added and the Ploughing
Ceremony Day is considered National Farmer's Day. The
best farmers of the year receive prizes from His Majesty
personally. His Majesty discusses agricultural problems
with the high officials and addresses the farmers who
come on study visits to the royal experiment projects in
Chitralada Palace.
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