BRITON'S BID TO STOP AFGHAN POPPY TRADE

Ex-Drug Dealer James Brett Has Beaten His Own Demons. He Tells Mark
Collings He Now Hopes to Take on the Opium Growers - With Pomegranates

'Pomegranates are the answer to all this,' said James Brett, as we
drove past the colourless, mud-brick villages and makeshift
graveyards that litter the parched landscape of Nangarhar province.
We were on our way to Markoh, a small village 40 minutes' drive
inside the Afghan border with Pakistan. Brett first visited Markoh in
April 2007. On his way to a seminar in Kabul, he had asked the driver
to stop the car so that he could speak to a reed-thin figure
extracting opium from the poppies.

'My translator told me not to do it. He said "you'll get shot", but I
just felt like the first step had to be made that day.' That 'first
step' was walking into the field to try to persuade the farmer to
stop growing poppies and start growing pomegranates instead.

After the initial shock of seeing the large red-headed man striding
through the field, the farmer agreed to stop cultivating poppies if
Brett guaranteed to subsidise both him and his family until the
pomegranate trees were grown and ready to harvest - a period of three
to five years. Having launched his pomegranate juice on to the UK
market four years previously, Brett was keen to find good fruit and
plough the profits into increasing production. His argument to the
farmer that the crop would return two-and-a-half times what he got
for the poppy harvest proved a compelling one.

Nangarhar - with a population of nearly two million people - is one
of the more stable provinces in Afghanistan. The tribal chiefs of
Helmand province, the biggest producer of opium in the country, may
be more difficult to convince. According to a United Nations survey,
Afghanistan cultivated 193,000 hectares of opium in 2007 and now
supplies 93 per cent of the world's opiates. The illegal trade is
worth around UKP 1.3bn a year to Afghanistan - one-third of the
country's gross domestic product.

One year on, Brett was preparing to address a 'loyal jirga' (grand
assembly) of tribal chiefs from the 22 districts of Nangarhar
province to try to persuade them to follow the example of that first farmer.

As we reached Markoh, the car slowed in front of a dozen or so Afghan
police armed with AK-47s. The police ushered us into a clearing at
the end of a dirt road where more than 400 tribal chiefs and elders
were sat cross-legged in an orchard under two brightly coloured
marquees. No one from the outside world - English or otherwise - had
spoken to a gathering of these people before. All eyes were on Brett
as he walked to the podium to speak, wearing a traditional Pathan hat
and a long white jacket embroidered with red pomegranates.

He promised that he would help to raise money for the project and
find markets for the fruit if they pledged to stop growing poppies.
After several hours of deliberation, the elders made a historic
decision, agreeing to cease poppy cultivation in the province from
2009. Nangarhar would be poppy-free for the first time in 100 years.

Later that day Brett led a crowd back to the same field he had walked
into a year earlier. The poppies had gone. The farmer was now
standing under a sign that read 'POM354 - this site has been acquired
as an initiative of alternative livelihood'. Brett shook hands with
the farmer and planted the first pomegranate tree in the dry earth.

The tree-planting ceremony was only the latest chapter in Brett's
extraordinary life. Born in Swindon in 1970, into a religious,
working class family, from the age of 10 he was sexually abused by
his grandfather, the head of a local church. When, at the age of 15,
James finally plucked up the courage to tell his mother about the
abuse, she committed suicide. Burdened with guilt, James turned to
drink, drugs and petty crime, shoplifting and selling cannabis. But
in 1997 he began to turn his life around. After marrying and having
two daughters, he started looking into more legitimate ways to make a living.

On a trip to Pakistan in 1999 Brett had his first taste of fresh
pomegranate juice at a street market stall. 'It was very odd. As soon
as I drank it I thought, "Tesco's, Sainsbury's, Asda..." I knew I
could turn it into something big in the UK.'

In 2003 he launched Pomegreat juice, which soon caught the attention
of the major supermarkets. Last year it sold 2m litres a month and
the company had a turnover of UKP 33m. Having lost friends to heroin,
there is a missionary zealotary about Brett's campaign. 'POM354 isn't
about personal gain; it's about personal growth,' he said. 'I'm in it
to help solve a problem that I care about.'

Last week Babrak Shinwari, member of parliament for Nangarhar,
arrived in the UK to discuss the future of the POM354 initiative.
Having proved that pomegranates can be a viable economic alternative
for farmers in Nangarhar, Brett intends to duplicate the model
throughout the country. Shinwari, who will run for the presidency of
Afghanistan later this year, will stay with Brett at his remote
farmhouse in Scotland to talk about how James can deliver on his
promise at the jirga.

Since Brett planted the first tree, support for the project has
gathered pace. Several food and drink companies have promised to help
- - they will carry the POM354 logo on their products and donate a
percentage of each product to the cause. Britain's largest drug
charity, Addaction, is also behind the campaign.

Shinwari has worked closely with President Hamed Karzai since the
first democratic elections in 2004 and has been a key player in
helping to build trust in the country's fragile government among
tribal factions. He sees the replacement of the poppy with a viable
alternative crop as a high priority and believes that for security to
improve it is essential for the economy to prosper.

'There is a will in Afghanistan to cultivate alternative livelihoods
and rebuild. POM354 is potentially the best alternative livelihood
initiative to happen to Afghanistan. Brett is the first person to
come from the international community who talked to the people for
the benefit of the people,' said Shinwari.

According to UN and Afghan government figures, a typical poppy farmer
can expect to make around $2,000 per acre. At a conservative
estimate, Brett says he has worked out that pomegranates could
produce $5,000 per acre.

POM354 aims to help raise the money to subsidise the farmers while
they wait for their first pomegranate harvest. Using the original
farm in Markoh as a template, it will cost UKP 24,000 to subsidise
the 16 families who live on the farm for the three years it will take
for the trees to mature.

The scheme will also help to establish an export market for the
region by signing up businesses. Funds will also be used to establish
offices and factories to provide education and support for the
farmers who are changing their crops.

It's a task that would daunt most people, but Brett has already
achieved more than anyone dreamed possible through his unorthodox
methods and bloody-mindedness. 'It's a big job, but if the
international community get behind us it will happen - and who
wouldn't want to get rid of the heroin problem?' he said. 'It's a
great opportunity for us all.'