Summary

Prior to His Majesty King Rama 9’s inception of the Royal Project and the establishment of the Highland Research and Development Institute (HRDI), opium cultivation was considered a criminal issue to be addressed by means of law enforcement. His Majesty viewed opium production primarily as a development issue, which sustainable agricultural and social development could address. This approach, known as alternative development, is now recognized as the best long-term solution to drug-crop production and is being implemented all over the world.

HRDI is continually developing, evaluating, and improving the performance of corporate functions that support HRDI’s core and mission, e.g., information technology, organizational administration, human resource development, and training workshops for hill tribes and staff to ensure HRDI can effectively achieve its vision and objectives. There are many development fields that HRDI is dealing with. After more than fifty years, these activities go beyond the opium elimination to development programs for poverty eradication, sustainable management of environmental resources, peace, and many social welfare projects.