UNITED NATIONS ENDS BID TO HALT AFGHAN FARMERS' OPIUM-GROWING

UNITED NATIONS -- Frustrated by declining support from Western donors and
the indifference of the ruling Taliban, the United Nations is winding down
efforts to persuade farmers in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of
opium, to switch to alternative, legal crops.

Ghorak, Khakrez and Maiwand -- three districts of Qandahar province where
the United Nations set up pilot programs promoting alternative crops --
have recorded decreases in poppy cultivation of at least 50 percent,
according to the latest annual survey of the U.N. International Drug
Control Program.

"This demonstrates that the alternative development projects work very
well," said the program's executive director, Undersecretary-General Pino
Arlacchi.

Similar programs in Bolivia and Peru, he noted, led to sharp declines in
the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make cocaine.

But despite U.N. efforts to persuade Afghan farmers to switch to wheat and
other food crops in return for compensation, Arlacchi said, "Afghanistan
remains by far the largest opium supplier in the world."

Now, with U.N. funding running out and opium still Afghanistan's leading
cash crop, the pilot projects will end this year, Arlacchi said, "given
lack of financial and political support."

Afghanistan's production of opium, the essential raw ingredient of heroin,
was estimated at just over 3,600 tons this year, a decline from the record
5,100 tons in 1999.

But the drop was caused mainly by a severe drought in southern Afghanistan,
not by any effort of the Taliban to make poor farmers grow something other
than opium poppies.

A previous decree that farmers reduce their areas under opium cultivation
by one-third has been widely ignored by the farmers and the Taliban
authorities.

Half of Afghanistan's opium is consumed as heroin by addicts in neighboring
Pakistan and Iran, Arlacchi said. The rest is smuggled to heroin markets in
Europe, usually via Turkey and the Balkans.

Afghanistan planted nearly 203,000 acres in opium poppies this year, a
slight decline from last year, again apparently because of bad weather.

U.N. officials hoped that the drought might encourage some farmers to
revert to traditional crops. But the poor harvest may leave indebted
farmers with no choice but to keep raising opium.

Opium growing is encouraged by Afghanistan's rugged, often remote terrain
and a long-running civil war that has bred lawlessness and defiance of
authority.

Afghan farmers can earn about $14 per pound of opium, considerably more
than they do from other crops, U.N. officials say.

Roughly 10 pounds of raw opium is used to produce 1 pound of heroin. At the
consuming end, the cost of a pound of uncut heroin in Europe or the United
States can exceed $40,000.

Opium poppies are grown in 22 of Afghanistan's 32 provinces, but six
provinces in the south account for 92 percent of the opium-producing area.
Moreover, 97 percent of this land is irrigated, proof that precious water
is diverted to opium poppies at the expense of other crops.

The Taliban, a militant Islamic movement that fought its way into power,
controls an estimated 91 percent of the Afghan villages visited by U.N.
surveyors, compared with 9 percent controlled by opposition forces in the
north.

And the Taliban's territory contains 96 percent of the country's opium
poppy fields, up from about 90 percent last year.

Arlacchi visited Afghanistan three years ago and secured assurances of
cooperation from the Taliban, which considers drug use contrary to Islamic
precepts, at least in theory. Since then, he said, "There was no
substantial improvement in our relationship."

The U.N. drug-control office will continue its annual survey of
Afghanistan's opium cultivation and harvest yield, conducted by Afghan
nationals who have been able to move about the country and interview opium
growers and local officials.