GOLDEN TRIANGLE FILLS OPIUM GAP

A drop in opium production in Afghanistan has doubled prices and prompted
growers in the Golden Triangle region of Thailand, Burma and Laos to boost
their output, says the Thai army.

Satellite photographs of the area where the borders of the three countries
meet showed opium poppy plantations were expanding, said a spokesman.
Investment by local warlords in better cultivation methods was also
boosting the production of opium, from which heroin is produced.

Afghanistan overtook Burma to become the world's top opium producer in 1998
and, by 2000, was responsible for more than 70% of global supplies.

But its opium yield dropped drastically last year because of a successful
ban on poppy growing by its former Taleban rulers, who have since been
ousted by US-led forces.

Burma, which produced 865 tons of opium last year, according to a
US/Burmese study, is now the world's biggest opium producer. The price for
raw opium has surged from slightly more than 20,000 baht ($455) for 1.6
kilograms to 40,000 baht ($900) or more since the strikes on Afghanistan.

Thai army spokesman Colonel Pairat Thongjatu said a half-acre (0.2 hectare)
plot of opium poppies could generate income of up to 400,000 baht ($9,090)
per crop, encouraging many poor farmers to continue to cultivating poppies
despite the legal risks.

Cash crops call Fears continue in the West of a surge in opium cultivation
in Afghanistan this year in the wake of the fall of the Taleban.

For many poor farmers in the war-ravaged country, growing opium poppies is
the only way to survive - and planting wheat or other cash crops often
proves unfeasible.

UN experts say that besides insisting that the Afghan authorities to curb
poppy cultivation and trafficking, the international community needs to
provide opium farmers with help in switching to legal crops.