GULF NEWS SAYS: PROHIBITING THE POPPY

A key programme in Afghanistan has failed. Experts from the United
Nations have all but written off the four-month effort to eradicate
the opium poppy crop in the country. The war-ravaged country has
turned into the world's biggest producer of the raw material for
heroin and Europe bears the brunt of such production.

Tens of thousands of hectares of land that Afghans desperately need to
produce food have been planted with poppy instead. This year's produce
of the poppy fields is expected to bring in $1 billion at the farm
level alone. With such income available for farmers and others across
Afghanistan, it is little wonder that weak government efforts at
eliminating poppy production have failed miserably.

A cash incentive to cultivate wheat instead has, for most part, not
been distributed. Discouraged farmers willing to accept government
controls over produce have been driven back into trade. If the
developed world expects to eliminate poppy planting and harvesting in
Afghanistan, it has to be ready to actively participate in the effort.
Merely depending on the fledgling government in Kabul to clean up what
has become a traditional farming practice is foolish and futile.