U.N. Agency Declares Afghan Province ‘Nearly Poppy-Free’

American Forces Press Service ^ | Lt. Neil Myers, USN

[SandRat]

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2008 – The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime recently declared Afghanistan’s Konar province to be “nearly poppy-free” in 2006 and 2007.

Afghan counter-narcotics and government officials speak with members of the media during a groundbreaking at the new Konar Teacher Training Center in downtown Abad, July 6, 2008. Courtesy photo  
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

During a July 6 trip to the province, Afghanistan’s minister for counternarcotics, Gen. Khodaidad, announced that Konar has qualified for two monetary awards totaling $750,000 from the Counternarcotics Trust Fund.

Konar Gov. Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi and his provincial council decided to use $420,000 of that money to upgrade the Konar Teacher Training College with a 60-room dormitory, dining facility and meeting hall. A lack of dormitories requires students of either to commute or to rent local accommodations while attending school.

“This is a great day for Konar and Afghanistan”, said Navy Cmdr. Daniel Dwyer, Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team commander. “When you see the government of Afghanistan, on its own, bringing projects to its people that provide for long-term jobs and economic growth, it shows everyone that progress is well on its way.”

After Khodaidad’s remarks, Wahidi, members of parliament and the delegation moved to the site of the future college facilities for the ceremonial groundbreaking.

“This province is devoted to eliminating poppy in spite of the many problems facing farmers,” said Khudaidaad, who thanked the province’s elders, who have been campaigning against narcotics.

Wahidi and the Provincial Development Council have not yet decided whether they want to spend the rest of the money on one large provincial project or distribute it for small, district-level projects. The governor said that he will spend some of the money to build irrigation canals and to make educational improvements.

“The people of Konar deserve the credit for the poppy eradication,” Wahidi said. “All the tribal elders and people of Konar are committed to putting an end to this [poppy] seed, because the smuggling, trafficking and growing of narcotics is forbidden by Islam.”

(Navy Lt. Neil Myers serves with the Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team.)

[stravinskyrules]

Poppy free?

Isn't that a term for the families in a majority of American inner cities?

[coconutt2000]

This will last all of one growing season.

[maine-iac7]

I would suggest, that those who don't know what our troops have gone through and what they have accomplished in the Kunar - at the greatest of sacrifices = hold your comments until you do.

You WILL be hearing in the not to distant future...

The 173rd is now at the end of their deployment after 15 months of hell - But they gave back in full measure to the 100th degree and have accomplished what no one else has been able to in the area in 30 years.

Particularly Battle Co. in the Korengal Valley, which used to be called “Taliban Central” = no more.

So hold your fire, listen and learn.

[ViLaLuz]

Did the farmers switch to the more profitable marijuana/hashish crop while collecting their poppy-free money? Or are they actually growing food?

[TKDietz]

They may have. I just read recently that aside from still being the world's most prolific opium growers, producing around 93% of the world's opium, with a new all time high record in 2007, the Afghans have now overtaken the Moroccans to become the world's biggest marijuana producers too. If they aren't growing opium in this province, they are probably growing marijuana there, or maybe it's all rock and nothing grows there.

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63450&archive=true

[ViLaLuz]

Check out the photos of Konar on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konar_Province

It’s certainly a fertile land.

In my opinion, drugs are such a huge part of the economy there, the global powers that be don’t want it shut down. It’s too big a cash cow.

[Nate505]

I find it somewhat fascinating that these guys can make hundreds of thousands of dollars from plants.

This isn’t gold. This isn’t something that the earth has took thousands of years to form and has to be mined and is rare. This is something that is very common and grows from a seed.

Man made constraints are amazing.