A Thai Prince’s descendant who elevated Philippine farming

Although of royal lineage, being the last in the line of the royal descendants of a brother of King Chulalongkorn (the great grandfather of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej), M.L. Charuphant “Noi” Thongtham decided to become a horticulturist. Since 1976, Prof. Noi has assisted Prince Bhisadej to help His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Royal Project, which for eight years has successfully transformed the planting habits of eight hilltribes on the highlands of Chiang Mai (the Baguio of Thailand), from growing opium poppies to cultivating vegetables, fruit trees, cut flowers and ornamental plants. Unusually creative, Professor Noi also initiated the dried flower project, one of the most successful projects under the Royal Project, which earned millions of baht from exporting dried flowers to Paris and Tokyo. Cultivating a great variety of upland flowers, he succeeded in designing a simple smoking house and exotic shades of plant dyes that produced a variety of floral bouquets that graced various social events.

Preparing a “self-sufficiency upland farm” model for ob Montessori

Prof. Noi finished his bachelor’s degree in Agriculture at Central Luzon State University (CLSU) in Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. There he met his Filipina wife, the former Normita Bunao. For 30 years Normita worked as copy editor, feature writer and columnist with Thailand’s leading English newspaper, the Bangkok Post.

In 1997, I was introduced to Noi in Bangkok. He has been in charge of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej Royal Project in Chang Mai Northern Thailand. He accepted my invitation to help prepare a self-learning farm for the O.B. Montessori boarding school for children of OFW families of Cavite, Batangas and Laguna. His idea was a financially-sustaining farm patterned after the late HM Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s “self-sufficiency upland farm” model. He went out of his way to look for the right property, ten of them between Silang, Medina and Sulsugin. Most of the land titles were not authentic but one time, Dr. Esguerra a local doctor and an avid fan of my husband’s column offered part of his five hectare farm to sell and offered to cement the road fronting it. The land had fruit trees, a virgin forest and a fishpond. Prof. Noi helped us convert it as a farm and campsite.

Professori Noi’s intense love for work

Since 1997, for almost seven years Professor and I exchanged invaluable visits regarding horticulture. But in 2004, Prof. Noi fell ill and we got worried. I offered to assist them financially since the Professor had not received any monetary fee for helping me set up the OBMC Farm. However, Normita declined saying, “Right now my problem is not money, but how to make Charuphant slow down and get some rest for his own good.

“You see, even when he was in the hospital, he asked me to bring him a bed lamp so he could prepare his talk at a seminar in Rayong (the site of his pineapple farm). Since he could not go, he asked his assistant to read it at the gathering.  Still weak, just two days after he had left the hospital, he gave a two-hour talk he addressed a seminar organized by the Department of Export Promotion on Thailand’s potential as exporter of ornamental plants and cut flowers. His reason? He accepted the invitation to give the talk long before he was hospitalized, and if he cancelled, there wouldn’t be enough time for the organizers to find a replacement!

“Since then, he has never stopped. He went to Chiang Mai for three days to check on his projects there, spent one night at home then took his students on a two-day field trip to visit plant nurseries and the result of his own successful pineapple crossbreeding project in Rayong. Then, he went to teach at Kasetsart’s Kamphaeng Saen branch in Nakhon Pathom province. Upon his return, he flew to Udon Thani in northeastern Thailand, near the border with Laos, to meet with provincial authorities about his plan to set up a botanical garden as well as a job-training center for youth in the Mekong River basin. He has since been busy organizing a committee to follow up on that project. Meanwhile, I could only hope that he would live long enough and have enough strength left to develop our own farm when he retires!”

Prof. Noi’s nobility and morality has won him King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit’s highest admiration

Noi stays poor while making others rich. According to Normita, “Charuphant has always been like that, putting his work above all else. I have lost count of the research work he has done, the talks he has given, as well as the plant collecting expeditions and trips he has made to find and promote ways for farmers including horticulturists to improve their lot. For decades he has devoted his life to the Royal Project, under whose auspices he initiated his own dried flower project which has successfully provided additional income, not only for the hilltribes in Chiang Mai but also for farmers and villagers in other areas in the North, as well as in northeastern, southern and western Thailand, not to mention the direct employment he has provided for at least 50 workers in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. If he were paid for all his work, we would now be rich, but all have been on a volunteer basis, with just per diem to cover food, lodging and travel expenses when he visits his research projects in the upland country.

 “Charuphant has always insisted that money is not everything, that the satisfaction of helping others is far more enriching. The leatherleaf fern he introduced to growers in Chiang Mai from the Philippines is now earning money for exporters, and wherever he goes, ornamental plant nursery owners go out of their way to see him, to thank him for the knowledge he had imparted to them through his talk, his books and newspaper articles.”

100 percent free from corruption

“Yes, he has helped a lot of people, and has done a lot of work for the Royal Project. But you know what? I am not too familiar with his work, because he wouldn’t let me go with him, even if I had the time. He doesn’t want other people to think that he is allowing family members to go for the ride when he goes to work. Thus, in all of his many years of working with the Royal Project in Chiang Mai, I have gone with him only twice (the last time was in 1993). First on the invitation of Charuphant’s mentor Prof. Pavin Punsri, and later by Prince Bhisadej himself (Director of the Royal Project), both in my capacity as a writer, to report about the project for my newspaper.”

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