U.N. REPORT: AFGHAN POPPY CULTIVATION NEAR RECORD

KABUL - Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is close to record levels a year
after being nearly wiped out under the hard-line Taliban regime, the U.N.'s
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report obtained on Tuesday.

The assessment report, originally designed to survey the annual food
deficit in drought-stricken Afghanistan, found poppy cultivation has surged
under the government of President Hamid Karzai despite a ban and steps to
entice farmers to stop planting the crop.

"Poppy cultivation, that was virtually halted last year, has resumed again
in most poppy growing areas of Afghanistan. It is estimated that the area
under cultivation for poppy this year is very close to the record level of
90,000 hectares (225,000 acres) set in 1999," the report obtained by
Reuters said.

According to an FAO official in Kabul an Afghan farmer can make $14,000 per
hectare of poppy cultivated land. The raw opium the farmer produces is
refined into opium and heroin that is sold mostly to Europe.

Until 2001, Afghanistan was one of the world's largest producers of opium.
The former Taliban regime outlawed its cultivation that year, but farmers
resumed growing it after Karzai came to power in December.

With the cash from donor countries, Karzai tried to ban poppy growing and
promised to provide $350 for about a quarter of a hectare of poppy
cultivated land.

His move came at a time when most opium fields were already sown and
subsequently the payment scheme failed to achieve its objectives, the FAO
report said.

"It is estimated that 2,952 tons of opium will be produced (in 2002)," the
FAO said, referring to the usual drug producing regions in the southwest.

Another FAO official even some non-traditional areas had also begun growing
the crop.

The report predicted a large area would be cultivated next year, driven in
part by the large numbers of Afghans returning home looking for ways to
earn money but also because the risks of prosecution were perceived as low
given the large numbers of farmers involved.

Afghanistan's infrastructure has been shattered by 23 years of war and
thousands of poor farmers rely on the drugs trade to feed their families.

There are few heroin addicts in the staunchly Islamic nation, which
traditionally views drugs as a curse.