Plan offered to cut Afghan poppy crop

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The fragile new Afghan government took on a daunting political and logistical challenge Thursday, vowing to eliminate the Afghan poppy crop, source in the past of perhaps 70 percent of the world's opium supply and of much of this poor country's income.

Just two weeks from the harvest of the narcotic-bearing flowers, the government said it would offer farmers about $500 an acre to destroy the crop -- a fraction of what they can earn by selling the opium, raw material for heroin.

If farmers don't cooperate by tearing up their crops, joint task forces of national, provincial and local authorities will do it for them, senior government adviser Ashraf Ghani Amatzai said.

Not only do tens of thousands of Afghan farmers and harvest workers depend heavily on the trade, but opium dealers are believed to be associated with some Afghan warlords and other influential figures.

Use of force considered

Ghani Amatzai said the government would not hesitate to use force. "We hope we don't reach that point, but the Ministry of the Interior is fully engaged to make sure it is carried out," he said.

Government officials did not disclose the details of the enforcement effort, such as what equipment and personnel would be used to eradicate the crops. A preliminary U.N. assessment of this year's poppy cultivation -- well over 100,000 acres nationwide -- indicates the scope of the challenge, in a country without even an anti-drug police force.

A decree issued by interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai signaled that international pressure played a large part in bringing about the eradication plan.

"Continuation of drug cultivation and trafficking will endanger our ability to restore our good name and receive support as a legitimate partner of the international community," it declared.

Starting Monday, the decree said, farmers will be offered $250 per "jirib" of poppy, an Afghan land measure equaling about one-fifth hectare, or a half-acre.

Poppy farmers this growing season have said they expect at least $1,700 per jirib of opium.

Ghani Amatzai noted the first harvests of opium would begin in about two weeks, expected in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul. The harvest in the southern province of Helmand, Afghanistan's biggest opium producer, will begin about the same time or slightly later.

Nearing harvest time

"We needed to act very quickly, so that the first crops would not be harvested," he told reporters. The initial funds for the buy-out will come from the Afghan administration, he said, and additional aid is promised by Britain, the European Union and the United States.

The government of the Islamic extremist Taliban, overthrown in a U.S.-led war last fall, had successfully banned poppy cultivation in 2000, eliminating an estimated 96 percent of the 2001 crop. But as the hard-line Taliban government fell last fall, farmers quickly planted poppy for the spring harvest, believing any new government would be too weak to enforce a ban.

Officials in poppy-growing areas have said it would be unwise and impractical to attempt a full-scale eradication program, which they said might stir unrest and opposition to the fragile new regime.

Other opium-growing countries, in Southeast Asia particularly, were believed to have filled the production gap caused by the Taliban edict. Most heroin made from Afghan opium is sold in Europe; American addicts depend largely on Mexican and Colombian heroin.

The Karzai administration, encouraged by the U.N. Drug Control Program, had announced a ban on poppy cultivation in January, but that was long after the seeds were in the ground. The farmers, meanwhile, have spent money on seed, irrigation water, tractor rental and other expenses.

Ghani Amatzai said the government would immediately institute a program of labor-intensive projects, especially on roads and irrigation systems, to help employ farm laborers.