Aware of the need for rural communities to have more food sources for self-reliance, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother initiated a model farm project in poor areas to teach local villagers how to be self-sufficient with their food supply. 

The project came about in February 1997, when Her Majesty visited local people at Ban Khun Tae in Chom Thong District, Chiang Mai Province, and found that they needed assistance for making a living. After consulting experts on the idea, Her Majesty initiated three model farms in March 1997 by acquiring plots of land to demonstrate proper crop farming and animal raising methods and to offer occupational training in cloth weaving, woodcarving, ceramic-making, and other skills. 

Out of the three model farms, two are in Chiang Mai Province, at Ban Khun Tae in Chom Thong District and at Ban Mae Tung Ting in Samoeng District. The other one is Ban Rom Fa Thong in Wiang Kaen District, Chiang Rai Province. They have received assistance from many agencies, such as the Bureau of the Royal Household, the Office of the Royal Development Project Board, the Department of Livestock Development, the Department of Fisheries, the Royal Irrigation Department, and the Royal Thai Army.

The model farm project has become a food source and serves as a center for transferring knowledge in agriculture to villagers, based on the principle of self-reliance and with an emphasis on the use of local materials. Local villagers will not only earn money from working on the farms but they will also learn how they can operate their own farms with greater efficiency.

Today, royally initiated model farms have been expanded to all parts of the country. Queen Sirikit wanted all community food banks, also at Her Majesty’s initiative, and model farms to function as sources of quality food production and employment generation to ensure food security and prevent shortages. 

Her Majesty emphasized that the best way to help was to provide jobs for people and give them a chance to stand on their feet and take pride in being able to feed their families with the use of their knowledge and ability. This kind of help would offer a way for the people to find dignity through their own effort. 

Her Majesty said that contributors to her projects warned that the royally initiated projects might suffer a loss because of huge spending on wages for local people being trained there. She told them not to be concerned about profits and losses. In fact, the entire nation would benefit, since the country and the people would enjoy peace and happiness; as she said, “My loss is the gain of the nation.”