'02 Crop Could Be Worth More Than $1 Billion for Nation's Farmers KABUL, Afghanistan - The new Afghan government has "largely failed" in its 4-month-old effort to eradicate the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan, which in recent years became the world's biggest producer of the raw material for heroin, U.N. crop experts reported Sunday. Their figures show the 2002 crop, close to the high levels of the late 1990s, could be worth more than $1 billion at the farm level in Afghanistan. [continues 569 words]
U.N. Experts Say Eradication Efforts Largely Fail Due To Lucrative Prices Farmers Receive KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan government has "largely failed" in its 4-month-old effort to eradicate the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan, which in recent years became the world's biggest producer of the raw material for heroin, U.N. crop experts reported Sunday. Their figures show the 2002 crop, close to the high levels of the late 1990s, could be worth more than $1 billion at the farm level in Afghanistan. [continues 466 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan - The new Afghan government has "largely failed" in its four-month-old effort to eradicate the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan, which in recent years had become the world's biggest producer of the raw material for heroin, U.N. crop experts reported yesterday. Their figures show the 2002 crop, close to the high levels of the late 1990s, could be worth more than $1 billion at the farm level in Afghanistan. "That's a big chunk of GDP [gross domestic product]," said Hector Maletta, a spokesman for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This impoverished nation's gross domestic product for 1999, the latest estimate available, was $21 billion. [continues 286 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan - The new Afghan government has ''largely failed'' in its four-month effort to eradicate the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan, which in recent years became the world's biggest producer of the raw material for heroin, UN specialists reported yesterday. Their figures show this year's crop could be worth more than $1 billion at the farm level in Afghanistan. ''That's a big chunk of GDP,'' said Hector Maletta, a spokesman for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Afghanistan's gross domestic product for 1999, the latest estimate available, was put at $21 billion. [continues 455 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The new Afghan government has "largely failed" in its 4-month-old effort to eradicate the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan, which in recent years became the world's biggest producer of the raw material for heroin, U.N. crop experts reported Sunday. Their figures show the 2002 crop, close to the high levels of the late 1990s, could be worth more than $1 billion at the farm level in Afghanistan. "That's a big chunk of GDP," said Hector Maletta, a spokesman for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. This impoverished nation's gross domestic product (GDP) for 1999, the latest estimate available, was put at $21 billion. [continues 336 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan- The new Afghan government has "largely failed" in its 4-month-old effort to eradicate the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan, which in recent years became the world's biggest producer of the raw material for heroin, U.N. crop experts reported Sunday. Their figures show the 2002 crop, close to the high levels of the late 1990s, could be worth more than $1 billion at the farm level in Afghanistan. "That's a big chunk of GDP," said Hector Maletta, a spokesman for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. This impoverished nation's gross domestic product (GDP) for 1999, the latest estimate available, was put at $21 billion. [continues 532 words]
NOOR MOHAMMED KHAN CHARAI, Afghanistan (AP) -- Mohammed Gul, tattered shoes planted in the mud, will keep a close watch on his two little acres in the coming weeks, waiting for the buds to bloom. He won't be alone. Five hundred miles up, racing silently through space, U.S. reconnaissance satellites will be watching, too, camera eyes cocked for the first signs of vivid red, the flowering of opium poppies. Here on the edge of Afghanistan's Desert of Death and onward east and north across this deeply poor land, the deadly narcotic is again the raw material of life and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people. [continues 1407 words]
NOOR MOHAMMAD KHAN CHARAI, Afghanistan -- Mohammad Gul, tattered shoes planted in the mud, will keep a close watch on his two little acres in the coming weeks, waiting for the buds to bloom. He won't be alone. Five hundred miles up, racing silently through space, U.S. reconnaissance satellites will be watching, too, camera eyes cocked for the first signs of vivid red, the flowering of opium poppies. Here on the edge of Afghanistan's Desert of Death and east and north across this deeply poor land, the deadly narcotic is again the raw material of life and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people. [continues 1691 words]
The Afghan Spring Opium Is As Good As Harvested Noor Mohammad Khan Charai, Afghanistan Mohammad Gui, tattered shoes planted in the mud, will keep a close watch on his two little acres in the coming weeks, waiting for the buds to bloom. He won't be alone. Five hundred miles up, racing silently through space, U.S. reconnaissance satellites will be watching, too, camera eyes cocked for the first signs of vivid red, the flowering of opium poppies. Here on the edge of Afghanistan's Desert of Death and on east and north across this deeply poor land, the deadly narcotic is again the raw material of life and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people. [continues 575 words]
NOOR MOHAMMAD KHAN CHARAI, Afghanistan - Mohammad Gul, tattered shoes planted in the mud, will keep a close watch on his two little acres in the coming weeks, waiting for the buds to bloom. He won't be alone. Five hundred miles up, racing silently through space, U.S. reconnaissance satellites will be watching, too, camera eyes cocked for the first signs of vivid red, the flowering of opium poppies. Here on the edge of Afghanistan's Desert of Death and on east and north across this deeply poor land, the deadly narcotic is again the raw material of life and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people. [continues 761 words]
