Poppy growing continues despite ban

You need not go far from the southern city of Kandahar, the former spiritual stronghold of the Taliban, to find poppy fields. A 20-minute drive away, farmer Mahbub is busy harvesting his crop, despite the Interim Authority's ban in January this year on poppy cultivation. Sap from the poppies is turned into opium - a class-A drug sold for millions of US dollars around the world. "There is no way I will stop growing poppies unless you can offer me an alternative crop which will give me the same amount of money," Mahbub told IRIN, squeezing the juice from a poppy head, which is then refined into the lethal drug. Last year he had been unable to cultivate poppies due to a ban imposed by the Taliban ban. In 2000, however, he had managed to harvest 13 kg, which, at US $416 each, had fetched him $5,400. "I sell my crop to local dealers in the local bazaar, who then sell it on to dealers in Herat [western Afghanistan]." So far this year, he had only managed to harvest five kilogrammes due to a late start to cultivation, and a three-year drought. The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, imposed a ban on poppy growing in July 2001, which the United Nations Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) said had been almost completely successful. However, following the fall of the regime late last year, there were fresh fears that farmers would resume cultivation. The Interim Authority's ban was imposed after the cultivation season - between October and December - was already over. As part of its effort to eradicate poppy, the authority is offering farmers a cash incentive to plant alternative crops. The offer started at $250 per jerib, or plot of arable land, but this has since been raised to $350. The money is drawn from funds donated by the British government. "This year's crop was not as successful as it could have been, because people planted in December, and they are still suffering from drought, a UNDCP liaison officer in Kandahar city, Fazal Mohammed Fazli, told IRIN. UNDCP carried out a pre-assessment early this year. A sample of 208 villages in 42 districts across southern and eastern parts of the country traditionally known for poppy cultivation was monitored. Results show that, in the sample area, between 45,000 and 65,000 ha could be cultivated in 2002, compared to 82,000 ha two years ago. Last year, the southern province of Helmand was among those producing the largest quantity of poppies. However, this province, along with Kandahar, were said to be almost completely free of poppy, according to the survey. It sampled four villages in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Oruzgan and Helmand, and found that only two hectares in total had been planted with poppy. A more detailed survey was conducted in April and May, but the results of this will not be made available until September. Meanwhile, the Interim Administration recently issued a statement saying that 60 percent of poppy fields had been destroyed in Helmand, a figure experts believe to be exaggerated. "We have drug experts in this area and we are doing all we can to eradicate this problem from our country," the coordinator of Kandahar’s drug control coordination unit, Ahmadullah Alyzei told IRIN. But at the Hazratji Baba bazaar in Kandahar city, drug dealers have once again set up shop and are doing brisk business. There is one particular row of outlets where about 20 drug traders sit with their scales ready for business. "Farmers bring their harvest to my shop, and I pay them up to 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,500) for four and a half kilogrammes," one drug trader, Sher Mohammad, told IRIN. He added that although prices were steady now, they had dropped by a third following the 11 September. "I have lost out on 700,000 or 800,000 rupees [$15,000] over the past year due to the Taliban ban and the war," he said. A similar amount of sap extracted from poppies would have fetched more than $20,000 in previous years. Afghanistan is said to be the world's largest producer of heroin, which is refined from poppy sap. However, UN officials say last year was the most successful year ever in terms of the eradication of illegal cultivation, due to the Taliban's ban. According to UNDCP’s 2001 survey, some 7,606 ha were cultivated countrywide, which is a 91 percent reduction compared with the previous year. The document also pointed out that the expected gross national income from poppies in Afghanistan in 2001 was around $56 million, approximately 38 percent less than that of 2000. The province with the highest cultivated area of poppy is Badakhshan in the northeast, a Northern Alliance stronghold during the Taliban years. According to UNDCP, Afghan farmers need a long-term strategy to get them away from growing lucrative poppy. "They need improved seed, training in agriculture and help with irrigation in a country which has suffered a devastating drought. Only then will they be in a better position to change their crop," Fazli said. Meanwhile, back in the poppy fields of Kandahar, the existing cash incentives are simply insufficient for some. "At the end of the day, I need to feed my family, and I will continue to do this until the local authorities have the resources to meet our needs," Mahbub said.