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Poppy Farming Declines In Afghanistan
Pubdate: Wed, 09 Feb 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
POPPY FARMING DECLINES IN AFGHANISTAN
Apparent Success Creates Challenges For Country's Poor
GIRDI GHOUS, Afghanistan - Shah Mahmoud smiled ruefully as he surveyed the
snow-speckled fields stretching beyond the mud walls of his village. In
drought-plagued Nangarhar province, a rare snowfall would normally augur a
bumper crop for the many opium-poppy farmers among his people. But on acre
after acre, the green shoots poking through the soil were not fat poppy
buds but delicate sprigs of wheat.
"I made the decision this season that it would be forbidden to plant
poppy," said Mahmoud, whose edicts as the area's traditional chief, or
malek, carry more weight with the 30,000 members of his community than any
government law. "So none of us did. Now I'm not so happy about that."
Across Afghanistan, government officials and foreign aid workers who
monitor poppy cultivation have reached a remarkable conclusion: One year
after Afghan farmers planted the largest amount of poppies in their
nation's history and provided the world with nearly 90 percent of its opium
supply, many of them have stopped growing it.
Poppy farming, officials said, may have declined by as much as 70 percent
in three provinces that together account for more than half of
Afghanistan's production: Nangarhar in the east, Helmand in the south and
Badakhshan in the north.
In Nangarhar, where last spring poppies bloomed all along the main road
from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, to the Pakistani border, the
contrast today is striking.
"I visited 16 out of 22 districts and I couldn't find a single plant of
poppy," marveled Mirwais Yasini, head of the Afghan government's
counternarcotics directorate. "It was all wheat."
Several factors may be responsible, including a drop in opium prices after
the previous banner harvest, and a reluctance to plant among farmers whose
crops were destroyed last season by disease or the police.
Afghan officials, however, say the news vindicates President Hamid Karzai's
decision to reject an anti-poppy aerial-spraying campaign, which had been
promoted by the U.S. government, in favor of a more consensus-based "Afghan
solution."
Karzai voiced concerns that spraying would cause health and environmental
problems and antagonize farmers; several foreign non-profit aid groups here
also opposed the idea. Instead, the president used appeals to national and
religious pride, the promise of international aid and the threat of crop
destruction to persuade hundreds of village and tribal leaders such as
Mahmoud to curb poppy cultivation voluntarily.
Yet the very success of this new policy also creates tremendous challenges
in a nation where opium cultivation and trafficking made up more than
one-third of the economy last year and sustained many thousands of poor
rural families.
"People will need other sources of income as soon as possible, or we'll be
the witness to a big disaster," said Gen. Muhammad Daoud, deputy interior
minister in charge of counternarcotics.
U.S. military officials said they plan to conduct aerial surveillance soon
to verify reports that poppy crops have been reduced. In December, the top
commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, reportedly warned visiting
officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, that drug lords were expanding their influence in the
Afghan government and could form ties with Taliban fighters.
But Col. David Lamm, chief of staff for the U.S. military command in
Afghanistan, said he was optimistic that Kabul's assertions of progress in
reducing poppy production would prove true. "Can you put it under your
mattress and let the price go up? Yes," he said, but he added that because
Karzai told farmers not to plant, "they are not planting."
International donors have pledged millions of dollars to help Afghanistan
combat drugs this year; the United States pledged about $780 million. About
$120 million of the U.S. assistance package has been earmarked for work on
irrigation canals, to improve roads, to create micro-credit systems, and to
obtain better seeds and fertilizers so poppy workers can make a living from
other crops and industries.
In Nangarhar, the first phase of that effort has already begun, with plans
to hire about 50,000 workers to do jobs such as clearing irrigation canals.
But it will take until at least early spring to start up more lasting
infrastructure improvements, U.S. officials said. Also, while aid workers
stress that such programs are not intended to compensate individual farmers
who gave up their poppy crops, local leaders such as Mahmoud see it that way.
A tall man in his 60s, Mahmoud has the regal bearing of a leader whose
title has been passed down through generations. If enough aid does not
arrive by the start of the planting cycle next fall, he warned, he may not
have enough clout to stop growers from switching back.
"The farmers will grab my collar and say, 'You said that we could get aid
for not growing poppy and we got nothing!' " Mahmoud predicted. "Then even
I will not be able to stop them from growing poppy again."
Mahmoud said he learned of Karzai's new anti-drug strategy in December when
he tuned a dusty television set to watch the inaugural address. Karzai, who
was elected Oct. 9 after serving as interim president for nearly three
years, called for a "holy war" against the drug trade, which Afghan
religious leaders have also declared un-Islamic.
Shortly afterward, Mahmoud and more than 40 other tribal and village
leaders in Nangarhar received invitations to meetings about anti-drug
efforts with provincial officials, several national ministries and
representatives of the British and U.S. governments.
The purpose was to make clear that the government had the means and the
determination to crack down on poppy cultivation, said Ghous, head of
counternarcotics for Nangarhar police.
"We told them that the central government is serious -- that if you grow
poppy, the government will get rid of it by force," recalled Ghous, who
like many Afghans uses only one name.
The community leaders also heard presentations by aid workers about plans
for development and assistance projects. Then they were asked to discuss
among themselves whether they could pledge to stop growing poppies in their
areas. Mahmoud said he struggled with the decision.
"As far back as I can remember, the people in this village have always
grown poppy," he said. The reason is simple: Opium harvested from poppy
fetches 10 to 20 times the price of legal crops such as wheat.
Mahmoud said he agreed to the voluntary crop reduction, in part because he
feared a more aggressive effort to eradicate the crop would lead to violent
clashes with farmers, and in part because he was convinced that the aid
officials he met would follow through on their promises. But mostly, he
said, it was because he did not want to bring shame on Karzai, for whom he
voted, and his new government.
"The international community has its eyes on Afghanistan now," he said. "I
don't want us to have a bad reputation."
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager