Afghan governor tries to persuade, not eradicate opium farmers
An Afghan governor is attempting to persuade farmers not to plant opium instead of eradicating the crop after it has been planted.
As the new planting season for opium poppy draws near, the governor of Helmand, Afghanistan’s largest poppy-producing province, says that this year he is determined to beat the illicit crop, which is a major source of money for drug lords and insurgents alike.
To do that, the governor, Gulab Mangal, says he plans to try something that has worked in more peaceful parts of Afghanistan, but which remains untested in lawless Helmand. He hopes to persuade farmers not to plant poppies at all, rather than eradicating the crop once it has already been planted, a policy he blames for sowing greater strife in Helmand.
Mangal’s solution may seem easy enough, but the task before him is formidable. He says it will take new seeds for farmers, new roads to get their legal crops to the market, reconstruction money, strict enforcement of laws against poppy growing and, perhaps most difficult of all, the elimination of the official corruption that has fueled the drug trade.
