FARMERS BLAME POPPY GROWTH ON LACK OF WATER, GLUT OF WHEAT

DARE NOOR (Agencies): Facing government-imposed eradication of their
precious crops, Afghan poppy growers blame drought and international food
aid - Canada's included - for their decision to feed the world narcotics
trade. Interim President Hamid Karzai says he will dispatch Afghan forces
this weekend to take down thousands of hectares of poppies worth billions of
dollars on opium and heroin markets the world over. But farmers in Ningarhar
Province in eastern Afghanistan say they doubt security forces will make
anything more than a symbolic effort at preventing the rise of what Karzai
fears will become an Afghan narco-state. And they vow to continue growing
the flower until aid agencies and Afghanistan's weak central government
start providing viable alternatives.

Mohammad Yusaf, a 48-year-old father of nine, served 28 years in the
government. Now he is jobless with no salary. "We know it is a harmful thing
that we do and that it is against human life," says Yusaf. "But we are also
human beings and we also need to have a good life. We have no alternatives."
"The people of Afghanistan will continue growing poppies until all the
weapons are collected, until we have jobs and until we are protected by a
constitutional law that has practical meaning." Afghanistan provides
three-quarters of the world's heroin - 97 per cent of Europe's alone. The
country's dry climate is uniquely suited to the red and white flowers that
bloom on roadsides and in hidden valleys alike throughout the region.