Special report on poppy cultivation in Badakhshan

Standing on his farm holding a shovel and shouldering a Kalashnikov assault rifle, Khak Nasrullah gazes over his sprouting crop of poppies on his land, wondering how he will spend the US $24,000 he is set to earn from the 60 kg of opium he hopes to harvest this season. "I will buy a power generator and a strong tractor," the 42-year-old farmer told IRIN in Argu, one of the largest poppy-growing districts in the northeastern province of Badakhshan. Located some 75 km from Feyzabad, the former stronghold of the Northern Alliance, in the centre of the province, Argu has a population of 100,000. Deep within its muddy streets, its tiny bazaar surrounded by wooden stalls has become a major dealing centre and exchange point for hundreds of thousands of dollars each poppy season. "One kilo of opium is US $400 in Argu market now," Nasrullah said, worrying that the price might drop. "This year, the prices will come down, because the output is more than the market demand," he predicted, conceding that he himself had planted considerably more than he had last year. "Last year I cultivated six jiribs [30 ha] of wheat and two jiribs of poppy. This year, it is the other way round," he said, adding that recent snow and rainfall - the best for five years - had made this year especially promising. Asked about concerns over possible government intervention, Nasrullah agreed that people had been a bit scared last year that the authorities might act decisively, but this year had been one of "jashen" (celebration) for the poppy growers. "From top to bottom, everyone has cultivated poppy. No one can call another guilty," the ex-mujahid [holy warrior] and father of nine said, claiming at the same time that the local authorities of his district had planted even more poppy than the villagers. Today Argu serves as a stark reminder of the problem among the 28 districts of Badakhshan, as well as being a major source of international concern. "This year, almost every district is competing with Argu," Mohammad, a district qazi, or judge, told IRIN, recalling that throughout the seven-year jihad, or holy war, against the Soviet invaders, the people of Argu had been strictly forbidden to cultivate the crop by local clerics, who had decreed poppy cultivation to be un-Islamic. "But that was then, and this is now," he said. "We know it is haram [forbidden to Muslims]. But when it is the only means of survival, you do it," the locality's 50-year-old religious consultant said. According to the latest opium survey conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last year, Badakhshan, with its production of 300 mt in 2002, is the third-largest poppy-growing area after Helmand Province in the southwest and Nangarhar in the east. However, Gholam Rasul, the head of the Badakhshan government's drug control commission, said the steady rainfall and the people's astonishing leanings towards poppy indicated that Badakhshan could well have a bumper crop this year. "60 percent of opium poppy cultivation takes place on rain-fed lands," Gholam Rasul told IRIN in Feyzabad, noting that this year had been very favourable for cultivation, with high rainfall and moderate temperatures. In the past, poppy cultivation had been concentrated in the districts of Keshem, Feyzabad and Jorm, but Gholam Rasul pointed out that poppy cultivation had now become common throughout the province and beyond. "There is news of increasing poppy growth in the adjacent provinces of Takhar and Baghlan," he said, asserting that there had been a 30 percent increase in poppy cultivation compared to last year in Badakhshan. While the government had taken some measures last year and tried to destroy poppy fields by offering cash compensation to poppy growers, Gholam Rasul said he believed that this tactic had actually encouraged more people to cultivate poppy this year. "They [the peasants] are thinking they would either get compensation or would get the harvest," he said, adding that the authorities had destroyed two opium processing laboratories in Sheydiyeh District, and that the drug commission had launched a local campaign for poppy eradication through the local shuras, or village councils. And while the government, through a presidential decree, has again warned farmers against cultivating poppy this year, threatening serious repercussions, 2003 has been more encouraging to farmers than any year before. "In addition to agricultural fields, people have even grown poppy inside their courtyards," Mohammad Hashim, an aid agency worker, told IRIN in Feyzabad. Hashim called for tighter control of traffickers, the true beneficiaries of poppy cultivation. "The poor peasants have not even seen the capital of the province," he said, asking who were those people that with their tainted Land-Cruisers were taking the poppy out of the province and the country. "The government and the international community always talk about disarming warlords, while the invisible drug-lords are more dangerous," the resident of Keshem District said. He maintained that there were 11 opium-processing laboratories in Badakhshan, most of them in Darahin District, adding that much of the opium was being smuggled over the border into nearby Tajikistan. Afghanistan's newly established Counter-Narcotics Directorate (CND) says the government is working on a plan to strengthen rural livelihoods in order to alleviate poverty country-wide, but much more is needed. "We will take all the measures that can be taken to prevent poppy cultivation," Mirwais Yasini, the director-general of CND, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul, warning that CND would even use force if necessary. Although conceding that, given the high price of opium this year, many people were indeed cultivating poppy, he asserted that the CND had acted decisively in eradicating its spread. "I agree there might be a 30 percent increase in Badakhshan compared to last year," Yasini said, while maintaining at the same time that the increase would soon be transformed into a decrease. "We have been able to eradicate 40 to 45 percent of cultivated poppy in Kandahar, Helmand and Nangarhar provinces," he said, noting that Badakhshan was next on the CND's list. But such optimism could very well fall flat, for much more than rhetoric is needed. Efforts to actively counter poppy cultivation are hampered by many challenges, including security, coordination with the provincial governors, and adequate resources - all of which require further attention. According to Yasini, a national drug control strategy has been drafted, presented to President Hamid Karzai, and is set to be adopted very soon. "The new strategy would involve cash-for-work programmes to create a safety net for the rural population," Yasini said, adding that it would focus on availing sustainable livelihoods such as work on building roads, schools, water dams and other infrastructure projects. He noted, however, that it was almost too late this year, hoping donors would support the CND in time to create sustainable livelihood projects for next year. The UNODC acknowledges that providing alternative livelihood is an essential component of any effort to counter narcotics. "Many problems of poppy cultivation are linked with poverty alleviation," Adam Bouloukos, a deputy representative of UNODC in Afghanistan, told IRIN in Kabul. "It is not the case that all the farmers are very wealthy," he said, noting that most of them were returning refugees and people who had lost their homes and their families, many of them heavily in debt. According to the UNODC official, however, the issue is not simply dealing with farmers, but rather with the whole chain of events. "The National Drug Control strategy and our strategy is to look at cultivation and finding out where the poppy is grown, problems of other industries, as well as alternative livelihoods in other districts," Bouloukos said, adding the UNODC would soon publish a Farmers' Intention Study on poppy cultivation. "We are approaching [the issue] in a more scientific way," he said, noting that UNODC had discerned from its drug-demand projects the misconception among Afghan farmers that drugs were a foreign problem, and that the problem was where the addicts were. "It should be said that the problem is here in Afghanistan," he said, warning that there were many drug abusers in the country. Bouloukos said there were some 5,000 registered pharmacies in Kabul, but no control over the distribution of drugs. "You can go and get many things apart from opium," he claimed, adding that drug abuse was an increasing phenomenon, particularly among the returning refugees. As for Gholam Rasul, he conceded that 75 percent of this year's agricultural harvest in Badakhshan would be poppy. "It doesn't mean people are against the central government," he explained, observing that the farmers would prefer any alternative way of supporting their families. "People are suffering from a lack of roads, fuel, clinics and schools," he said, describing the farmers as very poor people who could not be blamed for growing poppy.

Khak Nasrullah doesn't know what else to do

Meanwhile, back on his farm, Khak Nasrullah referred to poppy as his only means of survival. "Now at least we have a few roads, some electricity and some good teachers in schools, and all of this is the barakat [blessing] of the poppy," the angry peasant said, pointing out that no teacher or doctor would walk for hours or even days to a district for almost no salary, and knowing that he could not return for four to five months when it snows and roads were blocked. "They [government] comes by helicopter to destroy poppy, but not to bring us medicine, evaluate our needs and tackle our problems," he complained, mentioning that even though almost every family had a gun, they would welcome any fair and just decision by the government. "The people love Karzai," he said, hoping that the government would ultimately approach the issue in a positive and sustainable manner.