Poppy Conundrum in Afghanistan

Poppy Conundrum in Afghanistan



March 2007 - The 
start was impressive enough - television footage showed 
distraught farmers and tough looking police. Tractors made 
determined runs over two foot high opium poppy plants. Afghan 
government officials issued sweeping declarations that this 
time, there would be no compromise. 
After last year's failed eradication campaign and the ensuing 
record breaking harvest, 2007 was supposed to be the year 
Afghanistan finally moved away from its headlong race to 
become a narco-state. 
The results, however, look all too familiar. Within days, 
village councils had come to agreements with police on the 
price they would pay for their poppy crop to be saved. Farmers 
pooled resources to buy off the eradicators. 
With the harvest just weeks away, Helmand's 2007 yield may 
make even last year's bumper crop pale by comparison. 
Afghanistan produces close to 90 percent of the world's opium, 
the raw material from which heroin is made. Helmand is the 
undisputed centre of the poppy industry, last year accounting 
for 42 percent of the country's record harvest. 
"I have not even seen the eradication teams," said one farmer 
in Nadali district, where the campaign kicked off in 
mid-February. "I gave money – 500 afghani (US$10) per jerib 
(2,000 square metres). The whole village got together and gave 
the money to the elders, and it was they who approached the 
police." 
A Helmand farmer in his poppy field 
The farmer, who asked that his name be withheld to protect him 
from retaliation by government authorities, added, "Those who 
pay money don't have to worry. That is as sure as the sun 
shines. Now that I know how to protect my poppy, I will grow 
even more next year. I will keep on growing it until the 
government fulfils its promises to the people." 
Others tell similar tales, although the amounts paid in bribes 
vary. One farmer said that his family was paying close to 
3,000 afghani per jerib. 
Helmand province's Deputy Governor Haji Pir Mohammad voiced 
the official sense of optimism about this year's effort to 
destroy the crop. 
"We will eradicate 50 percent of the poppy in Helmand province 
this year," he said, saying that by March 3, three weeks from 
the start of operations, an area of 10,000 jeribs, or 2,000 
hectares had been cleared. 
But it is a race against time. According to officials in the 
provincial agriculture department, Helmand has more than 
100,000 hectares of land planted with opium poppy this year. 
Before harvesting begins in early April, the present 
eradication rate of 600 to 700 hectares per week suggests that 
the outcome will only be a fraction of the 50 percent target 
cited by the deputy governor. 
Security is also an issue. In districts under Taliban control, 
eradication teams have little chance of success. 
"No has destroyed my poppy and no one will be able to destroy 
it," said Hamidullah, a farmer in Musa Qala, which fell to the 
Taliban in early February. "We are not paying the Taliban, but 
they tell us, ‘As long as we are here, no one can destroy your 
poppy.'" 
"This year we have grown more than ever." 
The central government has sent out 600 police from the 
capital Kabul to work alongside 230 local forces to destroy 
poppy fields. Officials say the deployment of forces from 
outside Helmand should counter the ubiquitous corruption that 
sank previous eradication efforts. 
But if local reports are anything to go by, this year will be 
no different from last. 
"They could send 600,000 police and it wouldn't help," sighed 
one local government official, who did not want to be named. 
Even the deputy governor acknowledged that the well greased 
wheels of graft were operating smoothly. 
"We have received some complaints," said Pir Mohammad. "And we 
plan to send inspectors out to arrest those who are taking 
money. But we haven't been able to catch anyone yet." 
Fazeli Ahmad Sherzad, chief of counter-narcotics for Helmand, 
described the urgent need to achieve results in the 
eradication campaign, which is being funded by Afghanistan's 
interior ministry. 
Anne Patterson is U.S. assistant secretary of state for 
international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. 
"We have more than 100 tractors and 50 motorcycles," he said. 
"We have to do something. If we do not eradicate poppy, it 
will have a strong negative effect on the economy and on the 
military. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson has 
said that poppy benefits the Taliban and others who are 
against the government. They spend the money fighting NATO and 
Afghan government forces." 
It has now commonly accepted that the Taliban are using the 
proceeds of the drug trade to finance their efforts to unseat 
the Afghan government and drive foreign forces out of the 
country. But there is little hard evidence to support the 
claim. 
Farmers, landowners and even drug traffickers say that they 
are not being forced to contribute to the insurgents' war 
chest. 
"I see the Taliban walking around, but they don't ask us to 
give them money," said Janaan, a 28 year old farmer in the 
Taliban-dominated district of Washir. 
Traffickers also dismiss the Taliban connection. "We don't 
give money to the Taliban, and we don't ask them for 
protection." said one drug smuggler, who did not give his 
name. "We have our own armed people to escort the drugs out of 
the country." 
The Taliban themselves deny the charge vigorously. 
"We are not telling people to grow poppy" insisted one 
high-ranking Taliban commander in Helmand province, who would 
not give his name. "We would never tell the people to grow 
anything that is haram [forbidden by Islam]. And if farmers 
give us money, it is because they support the jihad." 
Itinerant harvesters in a Helmand poppy field 
The commander also denied that the Taliban were spearheading 
attacks on the poppy eradication teams. In the first few days 
of this year's eradication campaign, several armed raids were 
mounted on police teams in Nadali and one vehicle was bombed, 
killing two policemen. 
"It is the people who are doing that - we have no role in the 
eradication campaign," insisted the commander. "We do plant 
bombs, and we do fight the government. That has nothing to do 
with poppy – we are fighting jihad." 
Whether or not the Taliban are profiting economically from the 
eradication campaign, they seem to be benefiting from the 
anger it engenders among those whose livelihoods are at stake. 
Given Helmand's prominence as a poppy growing center, this 
seems to encompass a huge swath of the population. 
"If the government destroys our poppy, I will join the 
Taliban," said the farmer from Nadali. 
Janaan, the farmer from Washir, was equally emphatic, saying, 
"I will join the Taliban, I will pay money, I will do whatever 
it takes to protect my poppy." 
Some farmers have been temporarily flooding their fields to 
keep out the tractors. When the eradication teams leave, they 
drain the water and continue growing their crop. 
Much of the opium is processed in Afghanistan, and then 
smuggled out of the country as heroin or morphine. The main 
trafficking routes are Iran, Pakistan, and Tajikistan, and 
from there to Europe. According to the United Nations Office 
on Drugs and Crime, close to 90 percent of the heroin sold in 
the United Kingdom originates in Afghanistan. If this year's 
harvest is as high as is predicted, almost half of that will 
come from Helmand alone. 
Even if they claim not to be funding the Taliban, the 
traffickers in Helmand seem to be getting on well with the 
insurgents. 
"I am a small-scale smuggler," said one man, Rahmatullah. "I 
just buy poppy from farmers and sell it to bigger drug 
traffickers." 
Rahmatullah said he was not forced to give money to the 
Taliban when he operated in areas that they controlled. 
"We don't have a problem with the Taliban," he said. "If we 
give them money, we give by choice, like the zakat [tithe 
prescribed by Islam]. People support the Taliban. Why 
shouldn't they?" 
Another man, involved in the illicit trade on a larger scale, 
told a similar story. 
"We have no problems in the areas under Taliban control," he 
said. "May Allah bless them." 
{Published in cooperation with the Institute for War and Peace 
Reporting. IWPR has recently begun a journalism training 
program in Helmand province. This story was compiled from 
reports written by the trainees.} 





 

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