Socio-Economic Impact of Modern Vegetable Production Technology in the Royal Project, Thailand

The people living in the remote highland areas of northern Thailand are desperately poor. The predominant agricultural practice is shifting cultivation: to slash and burn the forest to grow opium poppy, upland rice and maize. Not unexpectedly, this rapidly depletes the forest area and has significant implications for erosion and sustainable watershed management. In 1969, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej saw the possibility of replacing opium poppy farms with other cash crops using more environmentally friendly farming practices. This initiative came to be known as the Royal Project. The Royal Project Foundation now has 4 research centres and 38 agricultural development stations in the five Northern provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Lumphun and Mae Hong Son. The Project has introduced more than 140 different kinds of vegetables and now supports over 3,000 households covering an area of 1,200 ha. The Royal Project has emphasized modern technology, the use of F1 hybrid seed, post-harvest technology, GAP and GMP, protected cultivation and fertigation, to increase the yield and quality per unit area. From five selected stations, the farmers participating in the Royal Project have achieved an average annual income of Bht 100,064/household, which is substantially higher than the national average annual farm income of Bht 39,193/household.