WE CAN STOP OPIUM: EX-GENERAL

It may not just be NATO soldiers who will help end Afghanistan's
dependency of the poppy trade, a Canadian general and former NATO
commander in the region said yesterday.

Canadian farmers and agriculture experts may also play a key role, he
said.

"It's the infrastructure and how to market their traditional products
that they need," Gen. David Fraser said of Afghan farmers' desire to
get out of supplying drug lords and instead feeding their own people
with crops from their own land.

Fraser, who was in Toronto yesterday for a short visit, said he has
confidence Afghanistan will one day be a bustling democracy.
"Patience," he said, is the key.

It's not going to happen overnight - nor will the eradication of the
poppy fields which fuel the opium drug market.

"A lot of the farmers are coerced into growing poppies by the
Taliban," he said. "There is a big criminal market for it."

But the solution is not to destroy every field right away, he said. It
must be done slowly for rural farmers to gain the trust of the
Afghanistan government.

Move too fast and the Taliban will use it as a tactic to gain support.
"They offer $10 a day," Fraser said, adding that's a lot of money for
a farmer who just had his field blown up.

For Aghan farmers the poppy is a "cash crop" which is used to feed
their families, Fraser said.

This is why there will have to be new markets in place and new money
in their pockets before the poppy farmer completely abandons this
plant. But, he said, many eventually will.

"They don't make the money on it," he said. "It's the middle man who
is making the money on it."

And there, Fraser said, lies the opportunity for Canadian
agriculturists to help the local farmer get back to the days of
growing other crops - crops which will earn them just as much cash as
the poppy does. They will need help setting up marketing boards -
something Canada is good at.

Fraser, who recently turned over his command of 7,500 NATO troops and
has returned to CFB Edmonton, said although they'll never rid the
world of it completely, there is a desire amongst farmers to do this.
"They know it will give them a longer life expectancy," he said.

Prior to three decades of war, Afghanistan was famous for its corn,
grapes, melons, nuts and raisins. They can be famous for it again, the
general said. And the markets are there. Pakistan and India are two
giant countries ready, willing and able to purchase these crops.

And it may be Canadians who help get it to them.