of the Royal Plowing Ceremony a few days later. Each is named "...62" after BE2562. This is a continuation of the tradition of his ancestor, Chulalongkorn, who founded the royal rice varieties competition. This was first held in 1807 and at first was specifically for the Tung Luang and Rangsit Canal districts. The next year it was held at Wat Suthat, and since then has been held at various locations around the kingdom. Vajiravudh continued the royal encouragement of varietal development, founding the Rangsit Rice Experiment Station in 1816 (now called Pathum Thani Rice Research Center and run by the Ministry). Thailand maintains a rice germplasm collection with 24,000 accessions, of which 20,000 are native Thai types (). Pests Nilaparvata lugens and Sogatella furcifera are two of the most common. They are commonly controlled with insecticides but can be more cost-effectively controlled by a combination of insecticides and attractive nectar sources to recruit parasitoids (see §Parasitoids below). Tungro is a constant problem. Oryza officinalis in Sukhothai Province was reported in 1990 to be highly resistant to tungro and several other pests, and already in use in several cultivars for that purpose. Parasitoids Anagrus nilaparvatae and A. optibalis are common parasitoids of the above N. lugens and S. furcifera. They are attracted to nectar-producing plants intercropped with rice. Intercropping in this manner is a cost-effective method to increase yields and lower insecticide requirements. Governmental policy The government sought to promote urban growth. One of the ways it accomplished this was by taxing the rice industry and using the money in big cities. In 1953, tax on rice accounted for 32% of governmental revenue. The government set a monopoly price on exports, which increased tax revenues and kept domestic prices low in Thailand. The overall effect was income transfer from farmers to the government and to urban consumers (who purchased rice). These policies on rice were called the "rice premium", which was used until 1985 when the government finally gave into political pressure. The shift away from protecting the peasant rice farmers by the government moved the rice industry away from the egalitarian values that were enjoyed by farmers to more of a modern-day, commercial, profit-maximizing industry. The Thai government had strong incentives to increase rice production and they were successful in most of their plans. The government invested in irrigation, infrastructure, and other pro-rice projects. The World Bank also provided financing