Viboon Khemchalerm, a pioneer in integrated organic farming in Chachoengsao whose life-long work earned him national accolades, died of blood infection on Monday, his son said. He was 79.
After falling over in his house's bathroom in January, Viboon had been hospitalised for his brain to recover, but the body was too frail to recuperate. He died of blood inflection on Monday morning.
A former headman of a village in Ladkrating sub-district, primary-school educated Viboon was selected in 1995 to sit on a committee for the national development plan. He was appointed senator during 1996-2000 and a member of the military-appointed national assembly in 2006.
Viboon Khemchalerm is known as a pioneer of 'wana kaset'. (Bangkok Post file photo)
In the 1980s, Viboon, then a typical cash-crop farmer, found himself deeply in debt as a result of the falling price of rice. The experience, bitter as it was, opened his eyes.
He began developing his own model of farming, one that focused on self-sufficiency. The method, called wana kaset, or agro-forestry farming, not only pulled him out of the vicious cycle of debt and borrowing in which most Thai farmers are trapped a decade later, it has also gained him national recognition.
Wana Kaset involves farming in forests in a sustainable manner by choosing suitable trees to be grown in each spot so all plants exist in harmony.
The praying ceremony for his funeral is being held daily at his residence in Chachoengsao to next Tuesday.