As an agrarian country where the majority of people are connected in some way with agriculture, Thailand needs high levels of water for farming purposes. Since most Thai farmers have to wait for seasonal rain to grow crops, they are at times faced with difficulties from drought, so there might not be enough rainfall for crop growing. During his travels to every corner of the kingdom to visit his subjects and learn about their problems, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej found that drought had become more severe in certain areas of the country and rainfall was inconsistent.
Early in his reign, His Majesty the King became interested in artificial rainmaking to assist farmers, who are very dependent on rainwater for their cultivation. At this point, he began to study artificial rainmaking techniques to seek ways of bringing down more rain to ease the drought situation. He read research work on meteorology and weather modification, which he found useful for combating weather change. In 1955, when His Majesty visited northeastern provinces, he traveled from Nakhon Phanom to Kalasin, passing through Sakon Nakhon and the Phuphan mountain range. During the trip, he looked at the sky and saw a large number of clouds moving over the vast, arid area of the Northeast. The initial conception arose from his observation that there was no rain despite heavy cloudiness. He wondered how to make the clouds move down and turn into rain. This idea was the starting point for his efforts to conduct rainmaking operations, which proved successful in the following years.