PROFESSOR TO TEACH POPPY GROWERS BUCKWHEAT CULTIVATION

NAGANO, Japan, -- For many residents of the infamous
Golden Triangle, where much of the world's opium and heroin is
produced, growing poppy is a means of survival.

But a Japanese professor intends to dedicate his post-retirement years
to teaching residents of the region a different way.

Akio Ujihara's plan is to encourage people to substitute commercial
buckwheat crops for opium cultivation throughout the region, which
straddles the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

The Myanmar government, which is aiming to eradicate the country's
drug problem by 2014, invited Ujihara, 65, to the country through the
Japan International Cooperation Agency.

A specialist in plant genetics and a professor at Shinshu University
in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Ujihara began visiting the Golden
Triangle in April 1996 and has since made trips to the region about
once every two months.

With residents of a small town of 200 inhabitants with whom he has had
extensive contact harvesting 40 to 50 tons of easily produced
buckwheat at the end of last year, Ujihara says he hopes to increase
this number 10-fold this year.

However, he also realizes that the drug problems plaguing the area are
not likely to be solved overnight.

''Drugs will not be eradicated just because poppy fields disappear,''
he said, stressing that area residents are also in need of education
and medical care.

But he sees his efforts as creating a foothold in the area and plans
to travel extensively in the region to teach local residents about
crop substitution.

Ujihara, who will retire from his job at the university Tuesday, is
wasting no time on embarking on his mission. He and his wife, Atsuko,
leave for their new home in Myanmar on Wednesday.