HELPING THE DRUG FARMERS

Afghanistan and Colombia, half a world apart and different in culture
and politics, have a common dilemma: how to wean poor farmers off the
narcotics crops that feed the habits of addicts, mainly in Europe and
the US.

Farmers in both war-torn nations have recently become the focus of
renewed effort by European nations and the US to curb the flow of
Afghan heroin and Colombian cocaine. But these drug-consuming
countries need to do more.

Under pressure from the West, the interim Afghan government early
this year banned the cultivation of opium poppies, from which heroin
is derived. That was after Afghan farmers, freed of the Taliban and
its ban on the poppy crop, had already planted.

Afghan authorities now have to eradicate thousands of acres of
poppies ready to yield the opium paste that pays farmers many times
what the government is offering them in compensation. Moreover, the
compensation often isn't right at hand, as promised. And farmers are
hard put to come up with an alternative to poppies that will support
their families.

President Bush's plan to uplift the Afghan economy, if funded by
Congress, will give farmers hope of economic alternatives to growing
poppies, as well as keep Afghanistan from again being a home to
terrorists.

The Afghans' plight would sound familiar to farmers in the
coca-growing regions of Colombia. There, too, the government, along
with billions from Europe and the US, has tried to give growers an
incentive to change crops. But alternative crops like yuca or rice
sell for much less and are harder to get to market than coca, whose
buyers come right to the farmers' doors to buy and collect the
harvest. Thousands of acres of coca have been sprayed with
herbicides, but most get replanted.

Moreover, both leftist rebels and right-wing militias profit from the
coca trade and pressure farmers to keep producing the drug. In
Afghanistan, too, powerful warlords want the drug cultivation to
continue.

Clearly, the forces keeping farmers in the narcotics business have to
be countered by strong incentives to quit. Directing farmers to new
livelihoods is as complex as reducing the demand for drugs.
Afghanistan and Colombia still need help in finding the best
alternative crops, improving their transportation systems, and
putting an end to the conflicts that drive farmers to grow illegal
crops just for survival.