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1967 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public ServiceBIOGRAPHY of Sithiporn Kridakara
Mom Chao (His Serene Highness) SITHIPORN KRIDAKARA was born on April 11, 1883 in Bangkok, Siam (now Thailand). His father, Phra Ong Chao (Prince) Krisdapiniharn, was a son of King Mongkut and when he became a Cabinet Minister was created Krom Min, then Krom Luang and finally Krom Phra Nares Voraridh by which he was best known (these ranks correspond roughly to Marquis, Earl and Duke in British aristocracy). His mother, Mom Suphap, was of Mon descent from Burma. The fourth of their seven children, SITHIPORN was taken at the age of three months to England where his father served for the next three years as Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. Upon the family's return to Siam he was enrolled in a small school in the neighborhood of his home where he learned to read and write Thai. Sent back to England at the age of eight in the care of his great uncle who was then Minister, he remained for 10 years, attending in succession the Dame School (for one year of primary instruction), Warren Hill (a preparatory boarding school in Eastbourne, for four years) and Harrow. He was studying mechanical engineering at City and Guild's Technical College, later part of London University, when family financial reverses forced him to return abruptly to Bangkok.
Prince SITHIPORN's education abroad was in keeping with the policy encouraged by the monarch. Preceding him in English schools were four older princes, followed by many sons of nobles and commoners. With the exception of him and his brothers, all Thai students in England in those days were government scholars. His mother, an independent woman who taught her children to take care of themselves, had insisted upon financing the education of her sons. She first engaged in real estate and then started the lime burning enterprise located upcountry which SITHIPORN was called home to help run.
The Siam to which the young prince returned in 1901 was undergoing rapid change, initiated by his grandfather, King Mongkut, who had come to the throne in 1851. The first of Siam's absolute monarchs to be well-versed in Western languages and modern science, King Mongkut had firmly directed a policy of Westernization. He had employed Westerners as teachers to his family and Western military men and technicians in government. He had started a printing press and a mint. Keenly alert to international politics, he had effectively opened the country to foreign diplomatic intercourse. To meet the demand for machinery, equipment and other manufactured goods, the economy moved from almost complete self-sufficiency to heavy dependence on international trade. Though export of rice, tin and teak figured prominently in this trading economy, the monarchy did not concern itself with increasing production. For rice—which quickly became the most valuable export commodity—expansion of production was led chiefly by Thai farmers in the central plain who mainly extended acreage planted to rice without improving cultivation methods. Development of tin, teak and later rubber was left largely to Western and Chinese entrepreneurs.
Until the son who succeeded Mongkut in 1868 reached maturity, affairs remained in the hands of a conservative regent, but, from his crowning in 1873 until his death in 1910, King Chulalongkorn was also a prime leader in modernization and reform. Concerned with preserving independence and satisfying the national and cultural pride of Thai leaders, Chulalongkorn accelerated the modernization process. In a general reorganization of government, ministries replaced old-style overlapping departments, remnants of feudalism were thrown off, the corvée done away with, and laborers could no longer indenture themselves. Buying time for strengthening the nation, Chulalongkorn continued the policy of his predecessor of giving territorial concessions: areas to which Siam laid claim were ceded to the British in Malaya and to the French in Cambodia and Laos in exchange for guarantees that the Kingdom's borders would be respected. The losses—mostly former or still vassal states left a smaller but more homogeneous "Thai" nation which the King sought to unify. Western legal codes and administrative procedures were adopted. The first railroads, roads, postal services, maps and schools came in his time. Though life in the countryside remained essentially unchanged, Siam, at the end of Chulalongkorn's enlightened rule, with a more efficient government, greater control over outlying areas, and larger revenues, had been recast in the mold of a modernized, centralized state.
Coming back to his homeland at the height of his uncle's reign, 18year-old Prince SITHIPORN threw himself into salvaging the family business. It had, however, been poorly conceived, the Prince recalls, and, with keen competition from Chinese kilns nearer to Bangkok, was bound to fail.
Three years after his return, the Prince married Kamtip. To this union was born one son, Amnuayporn. When his wife died in 1915 SITHIPORN was making a successful career in government service.
Foreign education and technical training were much in demand and, soon after the lime burning venture closed, SITHIPORN was employed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as one of the secretaries of the General Adviser, the senior foreigner in the Kingdom who had the confidence of the King and was consulted on a wide range of matters. Office hours were from 8 a.m. to noon. In his free afternoons SITHIPORN invented a Thai shorthand for which he received a prize of 10,000 baht; adopted by the Ministry of Justice for taking notes in the courts, it is still one of the systems in general use. Gaining a reputation for enterprise, hard work and efficiency, he was transferred in four years to the Opium Department in the Ministry of Finance with the task of setting up and operating a new factory for processing and packing opium on modern lines. His engineering background enabled him to understand the equipment and he often made repairs himself as in those days there were few Thai mechanics. With this assignment satisfactorily accomplished, the Finance Minister next gave the young engineer the job of reorganizing the Royal Mint, then running at low efficiency. As a Director General who would work with his hands, he soon had the Mint in good operation. This success led to his appointment as Director General of the Opium Department to reorganize sales of the monopoly that then brought in about 20 per cent of the Government's revenues.
When the challenge of reorganization had been met and the work became routine, Prince SITHIPORN turned his energies to outside activities, such as forming a Boy Scout troop among the youths in the opium factory and promoting sports. A tennis and squash enthusiast and an excellent soccer player, he was one of the initial members of the National Football Association and captain of the first national team. He became an accomplished player of the banjo, mandolin and guitar and had his own amateur troupe made up of brothers and friends.
Increasingly, agriculture became his principal avocation. First introduced to the subject by Farmers' Bulletins from the U.S. Department of Agriculture which he had chanced upon in a government office, he went on to read foreign textbooks and journals. He also began keeping poultry as a hobby, importing Leghorns from Australia.
His reading led to his conclusion that dependence upon a single crop—rice—was not in the best interests of the country. The more he learned, the more important it became to him to prove that other crops could be grown profitably in Siam. This conviction, together with a desire to get away from Bangkok and live in the country, prompted his determination to resign from the government in which he had spent 14 years and risen to the highest rank in the civil service. The unprecedented step of leaving high position to work on the land brought both criticism and ridicule, and predictions that he would soon be back. His cousin, King Vajiravudh, the son who had followed Chulalongkorn, thought Prince SITHIPORN's father would stop him; his father thought the King would disapprove, but family opposition was overcome when the King granted him permission to leave the capital.
In full accord with his radical decision to make an entirely new kind of life was the young lady who had become his second wife. "Indeed, without her wholehearted cooperation," the Prince emphasizes, "it would have been impossible to embark on the venture." She was, according to her devoted husband, "a remarkable exception to other highborn women in her outlook on life." Mom Sriprohma is a daughter of the last hereditary Chief of Nan, a northern Lao area of the kingdom. A far-seeing man, her father permitted her adoption by the childless Siamese administrator in Nan. When her adopted father subsequently was appointed Minister to Russia, she was left in the care of the Queen to be educated with the sons and daughters of other noblemen. After a short period she followed her adoptive parents to Russia and later accompanied them to England. Sent back to the guardianship of the Queen when her adopted mother contracted tuberculosis, she remained a part of the Royal Household and was Lady in Waiting to the Queen when she was married to Prince SITHIPORN, with the blessings of the King who had known them both since they were children. It was incredible to her friends that she should give up the comforts and pleasures of Bangkok for a lonely farm far from markets, shops, doctors and other amenities. But life in the palace had been confining and detrimental to her health, and she looked forward with enthusiasm to living in the country.
In 1921 when Prince SITHIPORN and his wife took their leave—with their two young children and the backyard flock of Leghorns—the Prince remembers that their families and associates "thought we were mad."
The farm the Prince had chosen was some 250 rai (approximately 40 hectares; 6.25 rai equal one hectare) of upland at Bangberd, an unpopulated spot on the seacoast 400 kilometers south of Bangkok. It was five kilometers from the closest village and 12 kilometers from the nearest station of the railway running down the peninsula to Malaya. His wife's adoptive parents had given the couple the small coconut plantation; to this the Prince added adjoining uncultivated land which was available to anyone who would develop it. He had a few savings from his salary in Bangkok, his wife's parents helped modestly, and King Prajadhipok, who succeeded Vajiravudh in 1925, later gave a loan and visited the farm twice. Otherwise, the family lived on the produce of their land. Mom Sriprohma recalls that the first years were difficult, but her health improved and both "enjoyed the challenge."
Untrained but "brimming with eagerness," SITHIPORN first cleared 12 hectares of uncultivated upland and began to put into practice the theoretical knowledge gleaned from textbooks. Among the sources he remembers as most helpful were Cyril G. Hopkins' Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture and William A. Henry and F. B. Morrison's Feeds and Feeding. He also collected "many practical suggestions" from books loaned by a friend who was taking a U.S. correspondence course on agriculture, and from U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletins.
In Siam, where slash and burn agriculture had been the only practice for upland farming, SITHIPORN was the first to apply the concept of water table preservation and modern methods of contour ploughing, terracing, green manuring and liming of fields—all practices of soil conservation and enrichment particularly desirable in a tropical monsoon area, yet even today considered "new" in Thai agriculture. Beside these "daring" innovations, there were many experiments with various upland crops. All plantings were selected seeds or new improved seeds from abroad. The earliest advocate of diversified farming, the Prince interplanted the new, carefully curved rows of coconuts on the upper part of his farm, with field corn, watermelons, peanuts and other cash crops.
No field corn was grown and little corn of any kind cultivated in Siam until SITHIPORN introduced several varieties from the United States. Low yielding and poor in color, the corn familiar to Thais was mainly eaten as corn on the cob or popcorn. In addition to field corn for fodder the Prince grew some sweet corn for home consumption. The field variety most successfully propagated at Bangberd—Nicholson Yellow Dent—he readily shared with other farmers. Later, as Director General of Agricultural Inspection, he distributed it through the Tapkwang Agricultural School and the experiment stations at Nonsoong, in northern Chiengmai and Kuannieng in the south. Though he then "officially" urged growing field corn for animal and poultry feed the practice was not readily adopted, for few farmers kept more than a pig or two and a water buffalo, both of which could live on farm waste and forage. Neither diversification of agriculture nor cultivation of corn became popular on a large scale until vast areas—unsuitable for rice production—were opened in the central plain and the northeast in the late 1950's. Today corn provides Thailand's third largest export after rice and tin, earning more than US$85 million a year in foreign exchange. The field corn variety Prince SITHIPORN introduced was gradually replaced after 1953, when improved varieties from Guatemala that adapted well to local conditions were brought in by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The watermelons introduced by SITHIPORN included many Western varieties, of which the long Tom Watson and oblong Klondike from the United States grew best and were his most profitable cash crop. Sweet and crisp, the Prince's melons "created a mild sensation" among well-to-do Thais in Bangkok. Recognizing that this special crop could only be sold in limited quantity if it was to bring a higher price than other more common fruits, he divided his distribution between Bangkok and Penang, Malaya, where the British and Chinese communities were equally receptive to the new delicacy. Soon, other farmers began to cultivate what came to be known as "Bangberd melons;" they "put Bangberd Farm on the map," the Prince recalls. Since World War II watermelons have become a major summer crop of Thailand, especially in the northeast, amounting to many millions of baht in increased income for farmers.
Among experiments to find alternative cash crops his most notable luck was with cabbages and flue-cured Virginia tobacco. He succeeded in producing a high-grade leaf suitable, in the judgment of a tobacco company expert, for manufacture of cigarettes, but he had no time to develop this crop on his own farm before he was called back to government service.
For the rice planted at Bangberd Farm, seeds were chosen from the best upland strains. From his small experimental upland plots, SITHIPORN sent seed to government agriculturists for testing, multiplication and extension. As with his other crops, he both fertilized with bone meal and barnyard manure and applied insecticide when these practices were unheard of on most Thai farms. Considering investment, results and market price, he found that it only paid to use the chemical fertilizer and insecticide then available to him—Bordeaux mixture and nicotine sulfate—on high value crops such as watermelon.
Livestock was an essential element of his diversified farming. For domestic milk consumption he kept a few Indian cattle. King Vajiravudh had imported two pure breeds of pigs for demonstration purposes, but SITHIPORN was the first to bring in purebred swine for commercial raising and marketing. Other farmers were encouraged to upbreed their runty, native stock with his boars. His White Yorkshire and Hampshire pigs initially were discriminated against in the Bangkok market on the grounds that "the bones were too big," but there were ready buyers in Penang.
Another specialty was chickens. Providing a regular monthly income at Bangberd Farm was the first commercial poultry operation in Siam. Not satisfied with the egg yield of his flock of Australian Leghorns, SITHIPORN imported the Tancred breed of the Leghorn family from the United States and found them "a wonderful improvement." For keeping an egg record he introduced a trap-nest system. Eggs had long been imported from China, but consumption among Thais was low. Because of the small Bangkok market—mostly European—and the keen competition from imported Chinese eggs, he could keep only 600 layers; when he increased to 800, the price of eggs went down. His recorded experience prompted Luwan Suang of Kasetsart (Agriculture) University, to build up the course in poultry raising and form an egg producers' association in cooperation with the university. The poultry industry has more than kept pace with growth in the local market and Thailand today is an exporter of eggs.
At Bangberd Farm the house and barn were supplied with water by an hydraulic ram when most Thai farmers were still carrying water from a spring, canal or river. A kitchen garden was an early feature, where vegetables common and uncommon to Siam were grown. Around the house were carefully selected and well nurtured fruit trees for family consumption and neighborhood markets; their pommelo, santol and mango were famous in the district for size, color and flavor.
Mom Sriprohma was a busy partner. Entering with zest into the role of farm wife responsible for home food supplies, she made her own bread, cured bacon and, to conserve surplus vegetables from her kitchen garden, was the first Thai woman to preserve food by bottling and canning: "I had to learn to keep our food as we were far away from any source except what we grew," she explains matter-of-factly. She also took on the job of raising the yearly crop of baby chicks to laying age—"No mean task when elevated wire batteries had not yet been thought of," her husband proudly points out. With these activities and life in the open, she developed from a delicate girl to a strong and energetic woman, who, now at the age of 78, still likes to bake her own bread.
Prince SITHIPORN introduced new methods of farm management, keeping the first farm records and cost accounts. Insistent upon research, he continually experimented and was equally concerned that improvements should be shared with others. Bangberd quickly became a demonstration farm where cultivators were welcome to observe and to obtain seeds, and laborers were patiently taught the reasons for each new method. Though only a few went back to their farms and applied their new learning, the Prince takes satisfaction in the several who did and prospered.
In 1926 SITHIPORN became acquainted with a number of agriculturists recently returned from abroad who shared his modern approach. The following year, to stimulate new thinking, he and three of these young men—all alumni of the College of Agriculture at Los Banos in the Philippines—founded the monthly agricultural journal, Kasikorn (Farmers). His associates and their friends provided articles on the theory and science of agriculture while he, as editor and principal contributor in the initial years, wrote about putting their theories into practice. In a series of articles—later published in book form—Mom Sriprohma described life on the farm and the methods of food preservation she was using. An early objective of the journal—which soon earned a reputation for being outspoken, mainly by virtue of Prince SITHIPORN's critical editorials—was to persuade conservatives in the Royal Government who had shown no interest in encouraging change on farms, of the value of new crops rather than dependence upon only rice.
At Bangberd the venturesome Prince also experimented with mechanization and labor-saving implements. Aside from the hydraulic ram which was an early import, he brought in and used the first tractor for upland crops but found it more expensive than animals, and the open gears a problem of maintenance. More useful, in his experience, were the implements he imported such as plows, corn planters, cultivators, harrows and packers, designed to be horse-drawn but readily adaptable to bullocks or water buffaloes. He calculated that two buffaloes drawing a modified sulky plow could cultivate two rai a day at 10 baht a day for the driver, and the manure from the buffaloes paid for depreciation of their 10-year working life. Thus for the average Thai farmer whose income was low he favored the use of animal labor over a tractor which requires an investment beyond their means and has only limited usefulness on a small plot. For his larger than average farm, however, the tractor was a welcome addition for heavy work. Located far from repair shops, his mechanical engineering training enabled him to maintain his own equipment and devise new tools for farm work.
Describing himself in one of his articles as "a middle class farmer who can afford a tractor," he urged the Government to do research and teach methods that would raise typical Thai cultivators above a peasant level. In order to become "middle class," he stressed, farmers must have knowledge of how to run a modern farm; they must have good seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and fungicides and know how to manage their farms with optimum quality and quantity of input.
The SITHIPORNs remember the late 1920's as the most comfortable and prosperous time of their lives. Bangberd Farm was productive enough to provide an ample living, and his knowledge of engineering and good business head led to his appointment as director of three companies—the Siam Electric Company, the Bangkok Dock Company, and the Menam Motor Boat Company, requiring his presence 10 days a month in Bangkok. In advance of his time, the Prince in those years had a warm following among his agriculturist friends but few imitators on farms, and opposition to his innovations was strong in some government quarters. The "real pay-off," as he puts it, did not come until a full 10 years after he began to farm.
With the Great Depression in the early 1930's—when world prices plummeted and rice especially fell to a critical low—came a change in Royal Government agricultural policy from monoculture to diversification; Prince SITHIPORN's views were vindicated. As the only man in Siam with a decade of experience in upland farming who had also formerly been an able government administrator, he was called upon by King Prajadhipok to serve as Director General of the Department of Agricultural Inspection—later the Department of Agriculture—and reorganize it to conform to the new policy. Though loathe to give up his farming and directorships, he could not refuse the request of his King nor back away from the opportunity to change the direction of government effort that he so long had criticized.
As Director General, appreciating that average farmers had neither the time nor money to experiment themselves but must depend upon the government to provide tested information, he at once established the first three upland experiment stations—one for each region and each headed by one of the three other founders of Kasikorn—at Maejo, Chiengmai in the north, Nonsoong, Nakorn Rajasima toward the northeast, and at Kuannieng in the south. Later the three experiment stations were expanded with agricultural schools and demonstration farms which the stations serve as extension agencies. Young Thai graduates from the Philippine College of Agriculture were assigned to demonstration work in the field rather than to teaching or government posts in Bangkok. Though his own appointment was to be brief, the experiment stations and services to farmers initiated by Prince SITHIPORN were carried on, particularly by his three Kasikorn associates, and were to make outstanding contributions to the progress of Thai agriculture. Two disappointments were that the policy of keeping farm records and accounts adopted during his service did not remain in force and economic tests on crop rotation on an average holding of 25 rai at the three upland experiment stations were given up.
Agriculture in Thailand had been directed mainly toward the production of food crops by small-scale peasant farming. Historically, all land was the property of the King, but by custom and tradition each freeman was entitled to as much land as he and his family could cultivate, an amount which rarely exceeded 25 rai. King Chulalongkorn's abolition of indentured service in 1905 ended acquisition of large tracts by nobles, who formerly had exercised the right to take as much unused land as they could cultivate by counting retainers as family. Earlier Chulalongkorn had discarded the system of Royal Grants to officials, nobles and others. Used as status measures in the society, the land grants had been nominal, with the land left for practical purposes in possession of the cultivators who were not obliged to pay rent. Inheritance practices whereby a widow inherited land and property and at her death the children shared equally, further contributed to the steady decline of large estates in the 20th century. By 1932 the average holding in Siam ranged from 10 to 30 rai, and most of the land in use was owned by farmers themselves. Settling upon 25 rai, or 4 hectares, as the economic unit, Prince SITHIPORN and his associates arrived at a division of the land into four plots planted respectively to rice, peanuts, corn and a cash crop, as a sound plan for diversification. The Prince regrets that, with his departure from office, the results of this research did not reach farmers nor were the tests continued by disinterested senior officials.
As Director General, SITHIPORN introduced Virginia tobacco varieties for testing at the three upland experiment stations. Anticipating that this tobacco would make the best showing in the north, he also encouraged his sister-in-law in Chiengmai to try-this crop. At the same time, the British American Tobacco Company started a similar project. Thais from king to peasant had smoked or chewed—as an adjunct to betel nut—the native tobacco long grown in the north and northeast. After the successful experiments initiated by the Prince in 1932, consumption of native tobacco declined in favor of the new varieties. In 1947 the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly was instituted with exclusive rights to buy, sell and manufacture all tobacco products in the kingdom. Now, after rice, the principal source of income of the Chiengmai area, the production of flue-cured Virginia-type tobacco grew from less than 16,000 metric tons yearly in 1948 to become a 700 million baht a year industry.
An achievement which served his Kingdom well in selling its main export and for which Prince SITHIPORN is remembered, was winning the first prize for rice at the World Seed and Grain Exhibition in Regina, Canada, in 1933. "Our rice was the best at the show," the Prince recalls, "because it was properly prepared for quality and strong germination." He insisted the samples from Siam be carefully tested, disinfected with carbon bisulfide to kill all insects, and sent to Canada in sealed canisters. Rice seeds from India and some other countries were infected and failed to germinate.
Prince SITHIPORN's second period of government service was abruptly terminated with the end of absolute monarchy Modernization that had begun during the remarkable reigns of Mongkut and Chulalongkorn had developed its own momentum. Their concessional diplomacy had kept Siam's independence as a buffer between the colonial empires of Britain and France and bought time, as they intended, for strengthening the country. In his 15-year reign King Vajiravudh contintued their policies of bringing Western changes and centralizing government controls he opened the first university, introduced compulsory primary education, and did a great deal to stimulate Thai nationalism. The amiable and cosmopolitan Prajadhipok, one of the youngest of Chulalongkorn's many offspring, followed his older brother as king in 1925, and ushered in the era of constitutional monarchy.
By the time of Prajadhipok's reign, hundreds of Thai students had been educated abroad and exposed to different political ideas. Most articulate were the 30 or so studying in France. Personal motives of power notwithstanding, they were convinced that Siam must further Westernize, and essential to this was the dissolution of absolute power. The King had independently arrived at a similar conclusion. Early in his reign Prajadhipok had reconstituted the two state councils organized by Chulalongkorn and had proposed both a limited franchise and adoption of a constitution, but he was opposed by conservative princes who were unpopular but powerful within the Royal Government. The King, meanwhile, himself became unpopular with senior members of the armed forces and civil service whom he had dismissed or reduced in pay in the necessity of retrenchment during the worldwide depression of the early 1930's. Among these aggrieved officers the returning students quickly found sympathizers.
On June 24, 1932, styling themselves "The People's Party," the dissidents presented the King with an ultimatum. He replied so promptly that he was in favor of a constitution that the plotters felt constrained to apologize for the tone of their communication. The state was renamed the Kingdom of Thailand and Phya Manapakorn, a former Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, became Prime Minister.
The King's ready acceptance of the new order was not shared by all his followers or members of the Royal Household. Among resistance leaders was Prince SITHIPORN's brother who had been Minister of Defense. Becoming himself involved in the counter-revolution, SITHIPORN was instrumental in sending railway cars to jam the tracks on which tanks were being brought across the Chao Phraya River to defend Bangkok. When the revolt failed, his brother fled the country but Prince SITHIPORN was imprisoned (in 1933) with other Royalists.
For the next 11 years Prince SITHIPORN was incarcerated, first at Bangkwang, then Ko Tarutao, and later Ko Tao, the latter islands off the east coast of Thailand. Through the many hardships of imprisonment he busied himself with useful tasks and was "sustained by the hope of one day returning to my family and farm." For his fellow prisoners at Bangkwang he organized an informal agricultural school and later incorporated his lectures into a book on upland farming. To improve the prison fare he taught his "batman" to bake bread. Accustomed to robust health, his worst trials were severe dysentery on Ko Tarutao and malaria on Ko Tao during the war years when medicines were scarce.
In her husband's absence Mom Sriprohma struggled to keep Bangberd Farm in operation. Continuing his work on cabbages, she found that suitable varieties could be grown the year round, not only in the cold season in the northern provinces as had previously been thought. With sale of cabbages to nearby markets, export of watermelons to Penang to avoid the, by then, competitive watermelon market in Bangkok, and corn raised on the farm sufficient to feed her poultry, she managed with her young daughter to carry on. Later her son, a student at Los Baños in the Philippines, had to be called home to help. When World War II reached Southeast Asia in 1941, cutting off the Penang market and her main source of income, she bought two sailing boats to carry produce to Bangkok, one of which was run by the son of the Prince's first marriage. Soon, however, high wages paid by the Japanese for war work drew labor away until commercial farm operations had to stop and her son, too, had to leave the farm to seek work in Bangkok. By the time Prince SITHIPORN was released in 1944 the farm was overgrown with weeds and grass "tall enough to hide an elephant."
During SITHIPORN’s incarceration, Thailand’s constitutional government evolved in the pattern set in 1932: military power decided the successive coups and remained the basis for political leadership. The 1932 constitution and subsequent versions, while borrowing from French, German and Anglo-Saxon sources, were responsive to Thai tradition. The monarchy was preserved and, though the King is confined administratively to countersigning legislation signed by the Prime Minister, the Crown lends continuity and stability to Thai institutions. From 1933 to 1945, with no compelling reason for change of political attitude, the autocratic tradition in government persisted; there were no colonial shackles to throw off and, though occupied by Japan, the kingdom was not a scene of battle in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1958 the premiership passed six times among People's Party leaders and two coups were put down. Through all of the contending for leadership after 1932, the modernization process begun in King Mongkut's reign was accelerated. With assistance of various Western technical aid missions, concerted efforts have been made to reduce disease, increase literacy, raise the educational level, and strengthen the economy, agriculturally and industrially. The policy of successive governments has been to sponsor increased planting of crops other than rice, including cotton, tobacco, beans and peanuts, corn and kenaf.
Given his freedom during the liberal Phanomyong regime of 1944, Prince SITHIPORN began, as his health permitted, the rehabilitation of Bangberd Farm. Without financial resources, the SITHIPORNs managed only by trading or by selling old tractors and superfluous implements for scrap which commanded a high price.
The many difficulties in getting the farm back into production did not deter SITHIPORN from paying keen attention to agricultural policies and developments in the country. When a controversy arose over the amount of surplus rice available for export, he entered into the debate with a vigorous campaign of letters to newspapers in favor of retaining a sufficient quantity for home consumption. To make his point, he cited the southern provinces where he lived; it was a rice deficit area and many people were not getting enough rice to eat. His forceful letters brought him back to public and official attention and his past work was recalled. Hence in 1947, when the army ousted the Pridi Government and the kingdom for a short time was governed by a conservative civilian group under Nai Khuang Abhaiwong, Prince SITHIPORN was asked to serve as Minister of Agriculture. After accepting he stood for election to the National Assembly to show that he had the approval of the people. Prachuab Kirikhan, the province where Bangberd Farm is located, gave him a large majority. In less than five months the Government of which he was a part was unseated by another coup.
In this brief period of service Prince SITHIPORN initiated work vital to the country's economy. During the war large areas of rice land had gone out of cultivation, veterinary services had come virtually to a standstill, and, when hostilities ceased, an epidemic of rinderpest was rampant. Measures for controlling this dangerous and often fatal disease of bovines were proceeding far too slowly in SITHIPORN's opinion, since solution to the problem of restoring rice land to cultivation rested in large part on a sufficient number of buffaloes to till the soil. Enjoying the confidence of the National Assembly, he was given the funds he requested to launch an active campaign. His successor, one of his three former associates on Kasikorn, continued the campaign, and, with the help of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), rinderpest was eradicated for the first time in the history of the kingdom.
As Minister, Prince SITHIPORN strongly urged development of livestock raising as an important feature of mixed farming and stimulated young agriculturists to try new ideas. Kasikorn became the official organ of the Ministry of Agriculture and remains today the sole agricultural journal in a land where four-fifths of the people still are farmers. Retained on the masthead is the slogan chosen by SITHIPORN: "Civilization follows the plow."
With the change of government SITHIPORN and his wife returned to Bangberd Farm to resume the task of rehabilitation. He still had his duties as a member of the National Assembly and, more important to him, as a member of the Constituent Assembly, which, at his proposal, had been elected to draw up a new constitution.
In 1949, to help relieve the world rice shortage, the FAO established the subsidiary International Rice Commission which held its first plenary session in Bangkok. Named head of the Thai Delegation, Prince SITHIPORN was elected Chairman of the Commission. Holding this position until 1953, he presided at subsequent Commission meetings in Rangoon, Burma, and Bandung, Indonesia, and at meetings of working committees in Bangkok. At one of these working party meetings he emphasized to representatives of the Rockefeller Foundation the need for a center for research on all aspects of rice production and likes to think he contributed, "in my own small way," to the subsequent establishment of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.
Problems at Bangberd Farm, meanwhile, became increasingly discouraging. Prince SITHIPORN and his wife managed a modest living, but lack of sufficient funds to restore the land to its former productivity and their advancing years, led them in the late 1950's to conclude reluctantly that their beloved 40-hectare farm was more than they could manage. SITHIPORN urged the Ministry of Agriculture to purchase the farm as an experiment station for coconuts which were in various stages of growth on upland and seashore terraces. The contouring, terracing and selected planting accomplished over the years notwithstanding, the Ministry demurred on grounds that there was plenty of free land available for such a purpose. In 1959 Prime Minister Sarit purchased Bangberd Farm for 500,000 baht (US$25,000) and built a 12-kilometer road to it from the railway station. Now confiscated together with the General's other properties, the farm has largely been abandoned. Hearing that her fruit trees had been cut, Mom Sriprohma lamented: "They had all been carefully chosen and cared for. Our santol were so large and sweet—I felt like crying."
To sustain them in their declining years the SITHIPORNs acquired a two-hectare farm with irrigation situated about one kilometer from Hua Hin, a popular seaside resort on the Gulf of Siam, and 230 kilometers from Bangkok. The location was chosen to be near their daughter Phensri, who manages a flourishing textile printing factory in Hua Hin. Starting anew at 76 years of age, SITHIPORN planted a small vineyard, just now beginning to bear fruit. While the grapes were maturing, he raised vegetables to be marketed through a fellow prince who was supplying the American Commissary in Bangkok. Today, the melons interplanted with grapes and vegetables are grown mainly for home use. From the harvest of a thriving row of mulberries Mom Sriprohma makes jelly and a refreshing fruit drink.
Khao Noi Vineyard, as the SITHIPORNs have named their farm, is approached from the main highway by a rutted, winding, dirt road. Near the entrance is a modest, weathered, wooden house. Steep stairs lead to an open porch with split wooden flooring where, amidst numerous potted plants and empty cans for seedlings, a reclining outdoor chair invites relaxation. Shoes, if not removed at the foot of the stairs, come off when one enters the living area stacked with newspapers, magazines and books and furnished with a small dining table, a few chairs, a long wooden bench, two cushioned wooden couches and a low table. The small kitchen is augmented by a utility-storage room. The bedroom and bath are simple but spacious. In this clean but cluttered house, with only the bare essentials for physical comfort, visitors remark of feeling in the presence of highly cultured people completely at peace with themselves and abreast of events at home and abroad. Meals and refreshments offered are made primarily from farm produce. Among the few remnants of their royal life is a tinted photographic portrait showing Mom Sriprohma as a strikingly beautiful young woman.
Until he was bitten by a snake at Bangberd the Prince had liked to walk barefooted in the soil. Now for outdoor work he adds shoes to his comfortable attire of a straw hat, loose white blouse and dark, knee-length shorts. A foreign agricultural attaché found him one day this year cultivating his vineyard with his small tractor, though at 84 he usually leaves the driving to others and limits himself to supervision. Ever experimenting, he continues to try new seeds and new methods.
At an age when he might have withdrawn into the contentment of his small farm, SITHIPORN's engrossing concern is still the improvement of Thai agriculture, and in him the farmers still have an active champion. As of 1961 some 88 per cent of the Thai population were engaged in agriculture and 65 per cent of the national income derived from their labors; however only 1.12 per cent of the national budget was allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and only 0.02 per cent was spent on extension. In the Republic of Korea, by comparison, agriculture accounted for 40 per cent of the national income and claimed 6.3 per cent of the budget. Buttressing his arguments with such figures as these SITHIPORN has persistently argued in newspaper articles, letters to agriculturists and in meetings with officials, for more attention to extension services and to the type, quality and quantity of production. Another crusade of his has been against the "rice premium"—tax collected on exported rice—which constitutes, in his opinion, an excessive burden on rice producers while real estate, on which speculators have grown rich in the cities, is lightly taxed. At every opportunity he emphasizes the importance of studying production costs, farm management and diversification.
Prince SITHIPORN hoped his son, Anuporn, would make a career in agriculture. After studying in England on a government scholarship and attending the College of Agriculture in the Philippines, he chose other work when, in 1943, employment was not available to him in the Ministry of Agriculture because of his father's Royalist connections. He now manages a small hotel in Bangkok. The older son, Amnuayporn, is in the Excise Department of the Ministry of Finance.
Several sons of former workmen, however, have followed Prince SITHIPORN’s example and become prosperous farmers. Some of the discs, harrows and iron plows they use he bought for them from India. All diversified farmers, they have fertilized their watermelons, peanuts and corn with barnyard manure and recently, on their mentor's advice, have begun to apply chemical fertilizer which today is comparatively less expensive than when costs-experiments were conducted at Bangberd Farm in the 1920's.
Among leading Thai agriculturists the consensus is that Prince SITHIPORN stands out as one of a kind in service to Thai agriculture. Well remembered are his unflagging efforts, when he was "rich in melons, maize, poultry and livestock," to win over the conservatives in government who were unwilling to make the changes his scientific methods required. They now find themselves in the position of those earlier conservatives, constantly urged by SITHIPORN to make changes in policy and practice. Included in the regard her husband enjoys among these men is Mom Sriprohma: "If his stamina and determination are admirable and astonishing," a former associate remarked, "she has shared his hardship and his peace and spiritually helped in his undertaking."
National recognition of SITHIPORN's role came in 1959 when he was eulogized by the Rector of Kasetsart University during a program honoring the Ministry of Agriculture. He was offered an honorary degree but declined, saying: "Those are for politicians." In July 1967, however, he was prevailed upon to accept an Honorary Doctorate in Agriculture and was the only person so recognized by Kasetsart in that year. Three outstanding contributions, all results of his work at Bangberd Farm, were summarized in the citation:
"His laying strain of Leghorns was the foundation on which a substantial poultry industry has been built and Thailand instead of being an importer has become an exporter of eggs.
"Work carried out at the Northern Experiment Station on fluecured Virginia tobacco has stimulated establishment of a large industry which has been of immense benefit to the farmers of that region.
"Seed corn from his farm was grown and distributed by the Northeast Stations and Substations and was the nucleus of what has now become Thailand's third largest export."
Responding to this acknowledgement, the witty farmer-prince reminded his audience: "I am not an economist nor a scientist, but a graduate from the school of experience dating from 1920 and a backyard flock of Leghorns as hobby!"
August 1967 Manila
REFERENCES:
Agriculture in Thailand. Bangkok: Ministry of Agriculture. 1957, 1961.
Bangkok Post. February 23, July 27, November 11 and December 5, 22, 23, 24, 1966.
Blanchard, W., ed. Thailand: Its People, Its Society, Its Culture. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files Press. 1958.
Busch, Noel F. Thailand, An Introduction to Modern Siam. Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. 1959.
Kridakara, Mom Chao Sithiporn. "The Agricultural Sector of Thai Economy," Hongkong Standard February 21, 1967.
"Loans Aid Thai Farmers," Hongkong Standard. July 24, 1966.
Love, H. H. Report on Rice Investigations, 1950-1954. Bangkok: Department of Rice, Ministry of Agriculture, 1955.
Luang Suwan. "Pioneer of Modern Agriculture of Thailand." (Speech given at Kasetsart University, Bangkok, in commemoration of the Ministry of Agriculture.) 1959.
Pendleton, Robert L. Thailand Aspects of Landscape and Life. New York: Duel, Sloan and Pearce. 1962.
"Thai Farmers Need Help." Hongkong Standard. June 9, 1966. Thailand. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files Press. 1957.
Interviews with and letters from persons acquainted with Mom Chao Sithiporn Kridakara.
