Farmers Display ‘Alternate Poppy Crops’ At Kabul Expo

[Disir]

The produce on display was of fruit, vegetables and some livestock, that was suited to farming in eight poppy cultivating provinces.

The Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation said the alternate poppy cultivation project has been implemented in a number of provinces for the past year in a bid to reduce the level of poppy cultivation.

According to the Ministry the project has been rolled out in Uruzgan, Farah, Badghis, Nangarhar, Balkh and Panjshir provinces.

“Its effects have actually been noticed. In Uruzgan things have already changed. I have spoken with Uruzgan people and they have benefited by changing their land from poppy fields to agricultural farming and also meeting the needs of the people of Uruzgan,” said the minister Nasir Ahmad Durani.

He said farmers in these provinces will be given some assistance in order to convert their land to agricultural farms.

Durani also said the program has resulted in a drop in poppy fields in the respective provinces.

The Minister of Counter-Narcotics, Salamat Azimi, meanwhile said the program has been rolled out in provinces that have the highest number of poppy fields.

Azimi said government is there to help Afghanistan eradicate poppy cultivation.
Farmers Display ‘Alternate Poppy Crops’ At Kabul Expo | TOLOnews

We tried this some 20 years ago and it didn't work as there was too much money to be made.

 

[MarathonMike]

That is very encouraging. But the drop in Opium prices may be related to the rise in Fentanyl popularity.

 

[Disir]

I didn't even think about that.

 

[ABikerSailor]

Well, right now, Afghanistan has competition from Columbia and Mexico, because they have gone into the heroin business.

Latin American Poppy Fields Undermine U.S. Drug Battle

Colombia and Mexico have become the dominant suppliers of heroin to the United States, supplanting Asia, in a trend that experts and the authorities fear could offset American-backed successes in a campaign against drugs that has focused mostly on cocaine.

Here in the lush, nearly impassable mountains of Tolima Province, rebels of Colombia's largest guerrilla group stand watch near muddy footpaths leading to opium farms that experts say help produce upward of 80 percent of the heroin that reaches American streets.