As a way of life, not simply a trade, agriculture can bring families together, with generation after generation passing down physical farms or a fervor for farm life. While Suparatana Bencharongkul’s life began in the telecom business, but it was her father, Thailand telecom billionaire Boonchai Bencharongkul, who cultivated her love of agriculture at a very early age. To him, the farmer has the world’s most important job: feeding the world.
Supraratana Bencharongkul (foreground) attending an art exhibition with her father Boonchai Bencharongkul (background).
As the General Manager of Rakbankerd Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of her father’s Benchachinda Group, Bencharongkul is pioneering the agricultural revolution by merging technology into traditional farming. Under her leadership, the firm has introduced many new ideas and new thoughts to the agriculture industry. It has launched many forward-thinking initiatives, such as Farmer Info Application, Farmmanyam, Fulfield, Sabuymarket, Allbio and Rakbankerd Products. Her goal is to help make farmers profitable for today so they can stay in business in the future.
In a recent Forbes article, Bencharongkul credits her dad and her childhood for her interest in agriculture today. The tie to agriculture from childhood and the impact that agriculture has in the world is what draws her to it. Like her father, Bencharongkul is advocating for agriculture and what farmers are doing — both hard work and innovating technology — is amazing.
Bencharongkul is positively disrupting Thai agriculture by introducing modern technology.
All the innovative technologies Rakbankerd has introduced are being adopted by farmers at an accelerating pace. From field monitoring technologies to variable rate application, the available precision agriculture technologies offer an end-to-end solution for today’s farmers.
The future of farming is very bright. There are more and more precision agriculture technologies coming out every month. All of these solutions offer substantial value for farmers in their effort to optimize production, better manage their operations, and both save money and make money off bigger yields. With a heart so dedicated to the farmer’s well-being backed by a successful telecom business, no one is better equipped than Bencharongkul to lead the next agricultural revolution in Thailand, if not the entire APEC.