Posted on 05/13/2010 4:13:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
KABUL (AFP) – As the pink poppy fields of southern Afghanistan yield their sticky harvest, opium production in the country that supplies the world with heroin is set to fall, farmers and officials say.
That's good news for the fight against the multi-billion-dollar drugs trade but it could be bad news for Afghan farmers struggling to feed their families as the war against Taliban insurgents and drugs gangs escalates.
"This year we had less poppy cultivation, which I think was because of our public awareness campaign which we launched before cultivation started," said Gul Mohammad, head of the counter-narcotics department of Kandahar province.
Farmers in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, the source of around 90 percent of the world's opium, agreed the harvest will fall this year.
The farmers and other experts cited high rainfall in some areas, drought in others, free seeds for alternatives such as wheat and good prices for food crops, and a mysterious disease withering poppies in some areas.
While some farmers have reportedly accused the United States and Britain of spraying their crops with chemicals, the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said disease was the likely culprit.
Tests by the interior ministry were inconclusive and more were being carried out, said the agency's representative in Kabul, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, adding that "plagues, pests, blight" had hit Afghanistan's poppy crop in 2002 and 2006.
"Natural phenomenon cannot be excluded, as happens to wheat, corn, apples. It is part of nature," Lemahieu said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Agree. Commonsense doesn’t require substantiation, or at least not much.
Well, it does appear that supplying free wheat and other seed has pursuaded some farmers to change crops. Also more rain and lot of the same crop growing together certainly is a recipe for disease spread
okay, who has been peeing on the poppies?
Wow! 90 percent ...
Legal pharmaceuticals also come from opium, such as morphine, codeine, and paregoric. Opium tincture is also used to treat chronic diarrhea. Opium is not just a source of heroin.
Commander: Marine forces hurt Taliban opium trade
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – The commanding general in charge of U.S. Marines in Afghanistan says his forces have dealt a blow to the Taliban's multimillion-dollar opium poppy business.
Maj. Gen. Richard Mills says his troops have made deals to take half of all poppy-producing land out of commission. Speaking Friday in Afghanistan in a video conference aired in Camp Pendleton, Mills says farmers in Helmand Province have given him pledges they will not reseed next year.
Curbing the Taliban's opium poppy business was a major goal of a military operation to seize the former insurgent stronghold of Marjah.
who has been peeing on the poppies?
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See 26 :-]
Good article. Thanks for the link.
A POX ON THEIR POPPIES!
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