UN AGENCY GIVES RICE TO FORMER POPPY GROWERS IN MYANMAR

YANGON, Myanmar (AP)--A U.N. agency has delivered an emergency
shipment of rice to former opium poppy farmers in Myanmar who have
turned to growing substitute crops, state media reported Thursday.

The U.N. World Food Program on Saturday delivered 690 metric tons (760
U.S. tons) of rice to the remote Kokang region of northeastern Shan
State, where people are facing a serious food shortage, the Myanma
Ahlin newspaper said.

Myanmar is the world's second-largest producer of opium after
Afghanistan, and recently has become a major exporter of the illicit
stimulant methamphetamine.

Several government and other independent programs seek to persuade
farmers to give up poppy farming by giving them opportunities to grow
other crops in a bid to end the opium trade. The government has
pledged to achieve the goal by 2014.

Since Kokang leaders banned poppy cultivation during the 2002-2003
growing season, tens of thousands of farmers have turned to substitute
crops. But poor yields and low profits have led to acute food shortages.

The rice was handed over to Kokang leader Phone Kya Shin by the WFP's
Myanmar representative, Bhim Udas, at a ceremony on Saturday in the
Kokang capital of Lauk Kai, 950 kilometers (590 miles) northeast of
the nation's capital Yangon, Myanma Ahlin said.

A separate World Food Program statement said the rice is being given
to 50,000 people who are "facing extreme hardship" in cooperation with
the Japanese government and three humanitarian groups. It didn't
elaborate or give the details reported by Myanma Ahlin.

It said the shipment is part of a relief project that began in October
and is expected to last five months. Under the operation, the farmers
will undertake food-for-work projects such as building latrines,
irrigation ponds and upgrading roads, it said.

The Golden Triangle area where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and
Laos meet has long been one of the world's major sources of opium and
its derivative, heroin.