PLANTING SEASON ON IN AFGHANISTAN

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - When the sun peeks over the horizon and a cold,
November fog covers the fields, Afghanistan's poppy growers get to work.
This is planting season in the country that last year regained the title of
world's largest producer of opium. But that distinction, however dubious,
may be short-lived.

Some farmers this year are not planting poppies, the source of the opium
used to make heroin. They say they fear jail because of a new government
ban on poppy growing - and their fear could be a first sign that Afghans
outside the capital, Kabul, are following the writ of law laid down by
Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.

"Now there is a government. They came around and told us not to plant or
they will arrest us," says Ghaza Gul, whose sandaled feet are cracked and
calloused from farm work.

Gul was among the tens of thousands of farmers who rushed to grow poppies
when the Taliban regime collapsed late last year.

Kabul fell Nov. 13 under the blistering air assault of U.S. and British
jets, and three days later the Taliban fled Jalalabad, the capital of
eastern Nangarhar province.

Some farmers even ripped up wheat crops to replace them with the lucrative
poppy.

Karzai took office last December and was quick to order a poppy ban. But it
was too late: The farmers has already seeded their land.

This year, the prime minister was ready to crack down on violators.

"We are committed 100 percent to eradicating poppies," said Mirwais Yasini,
director of the Counter-Narcotics Department of the National Security
Council. "We know it won't be easy, but the decree is without reservation."

U.N. drug control officials in Kabul said it's too early to assess the
success of the government effort. But in Vienna, Kemal Kurspahic of the
U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime said enforcement was a central issue. "It
would be unrealistic to expect Karzai's administration - coming after 23
years of total devastation of the country - to be able to effectively
implement the ban everywhere throughout the country," Kurspahic said.

Evidence of success could come next spring, when poppy plants blossom - or not.

"It will take time. It's unrealistic to expect everything to happen at
once," Kurspahic said. "But there is international understanding that
Karzai is committed to drug control."

At first, Karzai did not wage a large-scale assault on the poppy farms. At
the time, government officials and the U.N. said a revolt by farmers could
destabilize Karzai's emerging administration.

Instead, officials offered farmers $350 to destroy their crops.

Some agreed, but many complained they got a voucher instead of cash, and
then had a hard time redeeming it.

Farmers in southern Helmand province, the other big opium producing region
as well as Nangarhar, say they plan to plant twice as much poppy this
season, because they never got their compensation money. "I paid money last
time for diesel for my water pump and other things, and I want that money
back," said farmer Mohammad Zarif, 32, who cultivates along the Helmand
River. "We will never believe the government again."

Many farmers owe drug dealers who put up cash in advance for last season's
crops, explains Sakander Hayat Khan, an officer for the World Food Program
in southern Afghanistan. "Farmers get money from these people, and they
want crop back, not money," Khan said.

In Nangarhar, there are similar complaints.

"We didn't see any of the money," said farmer Abdul Wali. "Those who had
guns were the ones who got the money. Yes, for sure people are planting. It
is the best way to make money and to feed our families. What else do we have?"

The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime explains that farmers and farm workers,
who number in the hundreds of thousands, use opium as credit, borrowing
against next year's harvest.

Karzai's ban addresses the problem of moneylenders. He told farmers and day
laborers to not repay their loans, promising the government would come to
their defense against creditors.

Though farmers like Gul say they'll obey the law, enforcement will not be easy.

By contrast, the Taliban's "rule by fear" strategy put an end to opium
production in a single year.

Karzai's government does not have that harsh reputation - even though
authorities in Lashkar Gar, the Helmand provincial capital, razed the
town's opium bazaar last week.

"People aren't as afraid, but they still don't want to go to jail," said
Abdul Wali, whose farm is within view of the main road that leads from
Jalalabad to the Pakistan border. Easily accessible, it would be one of the
first to come to the government's notice if Wali defies the ban.

But for many farmers, opium production is a tradition that runs deep,
acknowledges Yasini, director of the government's anti-narcotics agency.

"I have been growing poppy for 20 years and this time they (the government)
will not get it," said farmer Mohammad Kasim, 70, who just sowed his crop.
"Over my dead body will they get this poppy."