From battlefield to field of dreams

A year into his retirement and Gen Pichet Wisaijon is still as busy as when he led soldiers in the battle against militants in the restive far South.

The former 4th Army chief shows no signs of slowing down. "I have no time at all to feel lonely," he says.

Away from the sound of gunfights and security flare-ups, the army general has discovered a new world where farming and advising people about making fertilisers afford him a different kind of life.

From a soldier who once carried guns to defend the nation, Gen Pichet has hung up his uniform and built himself a career in agribusiness doing a range of jobs from gardening and having rice milled to producing organic fertilisers for sale.

"I'm always on tour to give special lectures at universities about my new ventures in agribusiness in Isan," says Gen Pichet.

The father of three sons lives with his wife, who is a lecturer at Ubon Ratchathani University, on 50 rai of land in tambon Kaeng Dom in Ubon Ratchathani's Sawang Wirawong district in the far corner of the Northeast.

At the age of 61, Gen Pichet is looking at the Northeast in a different light.

The impoverished region was where he started his military career as chief of the 23rd Rifle Company of the 3rd Infantry Battalion. More than 30 years later, a lot has changed and the Northeast holds tremendous business opportunities.

"I'm now doing agricultural businesses by using the knowledge and experience I gained from carrying out developmental projects [during service in the army]," Gen Pichet says.

"We make compost to sell at 35 baht a bag while organic fertilisers are sold under the Nai Phon [general] brand at 250 baht a sack. They are cheaper than chemical fertilisers in the market and don't cause pollution," he says of his products.

Gen Pichet's dream for a career in agribusiness was conceived long before his retirement. The general was instilled with a love for tree planting since childhood. He bought his first piece of land for farming when he was an army colonel.

Like many other military officers who envisioned building a "home away from home" when they went into retirement, the general thought he should run a business that also allowed him to live off the land.

In 1983, a villager put 50 rai of land in tambon Kaeng Dom on the market. Without hesitation, Gen Pichet bought the land, aiming to make it a "hideaway retreat" for himself once he ended his army career.

The land was then only an empty field. Gen Pichet thought it was barren and lifeless. He took time off from work and arrived on the land with saplings in hand.

Over many years, he started growing trees, a few at a time, until the land resembled an oasis blessed with plenty of shade and a bursting variety of fruit trees.

"I thought at that time that small plants would grow into big trees by the time I retired," he says.

But as he was promoted through the army echelons, he had little time to spare to take care of his farm.

From a young lieutenant, he saw his career advance to deputy 4th Army chief in 2005, 4th Army chief in 2008 and assistant army chief in 2010, which was his last post.

He also led the Thai contingent on the United Nations' peace-keeping mission to East Timor, which was torn by an internal conflict involving militants from August 2000 to March 2001.

While some senior commanders before him prefer to live in post-retirement comfort, he says he does not mind getting his hands dirty by learning the ropes in farming and consistently cultivating new knowledge as a farmer.

He encourages villagers living near the forests to form farmers' groups and trains them to help security officers guard the trees.

The former commander says people are a destructive force but they can reverse the damage by living in harmony with nature.

He encourages villagers not to take the forests for granted and to adopt Her Majesty the Queen's advice on the immense value and benefits of reforestation.

When Gen Pichet was commanding the army in the deep South, he applied environmentally friendly farming to his mission to curb insurgency in the Muslim-dominated provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat.

The farming, which gave local residents a financial boost, worked wonders as a community relations tool that forged closeness between authorities and local people.

"Don't forget that Thailand is a farm-oriented country," he says.

The adoption of the "agricultural strategy" which earned public trust in the authorities was made in parallel with the anti-insurgent operations in the far South.

He educated rubber and fruit farmers to set up a network that promotes chemical-free farming and, in the process, saves the lives of many farmers who would otherwise be exposed to pesticides.

The project bore fruit as the ties between the authorities and people, which previously were weak, became stronger.

In his view, closer relations with local people enable the authorities to fight off separatist groups. Whoever gets the villagers' support wins the war against the separatists.

"Soldiers should not only fight in battlefields," he says, adding guns alone will not win the day.

Gen Pichet maintains he works hard to prove wrong his doubters who are dismissive of farming as a method to battle security threats.

Some villagers in the Northeast brand him as the "EM general" for his advocacy of the use of effective microorganisms in making fertilisers.

One of his colleagues thought he had gone out of his mind with his "fixation" on tree planting and farming.

"But I just smiled," Gen Pichet recalls.

The general showed he was able to perform his military duties while not losing his green ambitions.

Now he is going to write a new chapter as a fulltime businessman dedicated to farming, fertiliser-making and tree planting.

"I do it for my happiness. I don't mind whether [the trees and fruits] can be sold or not. I want to live a subsistence lifestyle," he says.