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Afghanistan's deadly crop flourishes again
Afghanistan’s deadly crop flourishes again
L E V E L O N E
-
E L E M E N TA RY
When the war in Afghanistan
began last year,
Fahzel Rahman
went to his cellar and got some tiny
yellow seeds. He planted the seeds
in his garden. Now he has a garden
full of poppy plants. "You'd be
stupid not to grow opium," he said,
looking at the plants growing out
of the dry earth. "If the Americans
give us some money, we'll stop
planting poppy." Mr Rahman lives
in Singesar,
a dusty village near the
southern desert city of Kandahar.
The village is famous because
Mullah Mohammed Omar, the
Taliban's leader, lived here in the
past.
Two years ago Mullah Omar
stopped opium production in
Afghanistan, which was then the
world's largest producer of heroin.
"I grew tomatoes and other garden
vegetables last year," Mr Rahman
said.
United
Nations officials last month
said that poppy production in
Afghanistan fell by 91% last year -
from 82,172 hectares to 7,606. But
now that the Taliban’s rule has
ended, farmers all over Afghanistan
have begun to plant poppy seeds
again.
"I can make $1,600 from this small
poppy field here," Mr Rahman
said, pointing to his small kitchen
garden. "If
I sell all of the grapes
over there, I'll only make a fraction
of that," he added. Another opium
farmer, Abdul Ali, says the harvest
season between May and July is a
happy time in Singesar. "We all
collect the poppy resin together,
including the children. Even
women do it, because the crop
grows very high and nobody can
see their faces. We are pleased to
have the money."
Stopping the production of opium
is one
of the first big tests for
Hamid Karzai, leader of
Afghanistan's new government. He
says he is against drugs and wants
all poppy production to stop. But
he does not control the whole
country, his government does not
have much money and people are
not afraid of the new police
authorities in the same way that
they were afraid of the Taliban.
United Nations officials think that
Afghanistan will produce an
enormous opium crop this year.
Mr Karzai's
local representatives
are doing their best. This month
Kandahar's new governor, Gul
Agha, closed down the city's opium
bazaar. "There is nothing left for us
now but to sit and drink tea," said
Shau Ali, 35, sitting on the carpet
of his empty shop. "We are very
sad because we don't have a job
any more. We are asking the
government to let us sell our
remaining stocks of opium."
Mr Ali
said a kilogram of opium now costs
between $2,200 and $2,700, down
from last year's price of $3,300
when there was no prospect of a
new crop this year.
Gul Agha knows that if he tells his
officials to dig up the poppy fields,
he will be very unpopular with the
farmers. They have already planted
this year’s crop so it is too late to
change the situation. Now that the
Taliban are gone,
it will be difficult
to stop the production of opium in
Afghanistan. Three years ago, the
opium trade was worth $98m to
Afghanistan's farmers. Most of the
people who buy the opium are rich
businessmen from Iran and
Pakistan.
Opium has grown in Afghanistan
since the time of Alexander the
Great. It needs little water and
grows easily in the dry climate. Not
many people believe that Mr
Karzai can stop its production.
T
HE
G
UARDIAN
W
EEKLY
28-2-2002,
PAGE
3
