GENERAL - CANUCK FARMERS CAN HELP

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.

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

'BIG CRIMINAL MARKET'

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 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.