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A tribute to the Rice King
Saturday, 2016/10/22 | 08:02:57
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IRRI, Bob Hill Oct 15, 2016
Thai rice farmers are fortunate to have a head of state who does more than offer symbolic support—His Majesty the King of Thailand is a monarch who genuinely makes a difference This article was originally published in Rice Today Vol. 6, No. 1 (2007)
A patron is defined as a distinguished person who gives support to an organization or cause by accepting an honorary position. Since there is no more distinguished person than a king, it follows that royal patronage is something special. It is recognition from a royal figure that the work of an organization is so deeply favored that it warrants not only a public declaration of support but also that such support is of a long standing nature. Moreover, royal patronage is rarely granted outside a monarch’s kingdom.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is both privileged and honored to have as its Royal Patron “the Development King,” King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. For while mental visions of spectacle and formality inevitably tumble into any consideration of royalty, it is astonishing, with a perception thus blurred, to discover that there is another, largely unpublished, side to the remarkable reign of King Bhumibol: a selfless dedication to the welfare of his subjects that vastly outweighs the notional bounds of noblesse oblige.
For much of his 60 years on the Thai throne, King Bhumibol has ventured restlessly throughout every corner of his kingdom, often spending more than half of any year away from Bangkok, studying the countryside, listening to the problems of his people, proposing, suggesting, innovating, and inventing.
His ideas and suggestions, after considering the people’s needs, the physical environment, and agricultural practices, have been put to the test in more than 4,300 royal projects. They cover almost every conceivable aspect of what is generally labeled “development,” but they concentrate heavily on water resources, agriculture, and conservation. The King’s projects have long supported the livelihood of small-scale farmers and particularly the rice farmers that constitute the heart of rural Thailand.
His innovations have benefited millions of people, and have given the little people of Thailand the kind of strength that saw them twice deliver record rice harvests, enhancing the country’s capacity to export, in the bleak years following Thailand’s financial collapse in 1997.
During the massive gatherings in Bangkok to mark the 60th anniversary of his accession to the throne, in June last year, it was a common sight to see mature Thai people weeping unashamedly, overcome with the emotion of sharing the moment with their King. For if there is one characteristic that marks King Bhumibol, and has nurtured the success of his many projects, it is his almost uncanny connection with the common folk, the poor, and the dispossessed.
His landmark Royal Crop Replacement Project, which successfully eliminated opium growing in the country’s mountainous north, directly affected the lives of at least 50,000 people, and won the 1988 Ramon Magsaysay Award. Early last year, the United Nations recognized King Bhumibol as “the Development King,” and, in October, His Majesty received the first Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Medallion, awarded by the World Food Prize Foundation for individuals at the highest levels of international society who have given exceptional humanitarian service in reducing hunger and poverty.
His efforts to improve the livelihood of his people are never remote or detached. His is a hands-on, sweat, and rolled-up shirtsleeves commitment. He holds patents for a cloud-seeding procedure to make artificial rain, two floating aerators for improving the quality of polluted water, and a process for making bio-diesel.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his accession to the throne, in June 1996, King Bhumibol accepted the first and only International Rice Gold Medal awarded by IRRI in recognition of his passionate personal interest in, and devotion to, improving the well-being of rice farmers and consumers. Just over a year later, in September 1997, King Bhumibol recognized IRRI’s work and became the Institute’s Royal Patron. The Royal Plaque, “the Great Crown of Victory,” together with His Majesty’s portrait, have since taken pride of place in IRRI’s main administration building. …… Rather than isolating himself within the pomp and ceremony that are the common view of his extraordinary reign, Thailand’s Development King—IRRI’s Royal Patron—prefers to live at the active heart of a development engine that promises a better future for his 64 million subjects.
See more details: http://ricetoday.irri.org/the-rice-king/
Figure: King Bhumibol greets former IRRI Director General Ronald Cantrell during an August 2004 visit to update His Majesty on IRRI’s work. (Photo: IRRI) |
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