Harvest Time
Countless Afghan men and boys are jubilant; it's harvesting time. Imagine yourself in a field of stunningly exquisite blooms, and it is the flowers that take your attention; in fact it is the flowers that are to be harvested. This is an illegal activity.And the United States' military and other NATO forces were heavily involved in plowing under those lovely flowers. Trouble was, as soon as one field was plowed under, another popped up somewhere else.
Afghan farmers are committed to growing poppies. Not because they are so much enthralled by their beauty, but because they are convinced that growing poppies will allow them to escape the endemic poverty that is their lot. Poppy cultivation is worth far, far more than growing, tending and harvesting grains for human consumption.
It may make little practical sense to most farmers living elsewhere in the world to sacrifice arable land to grow flowers whose resin dries into solid opium residue, when they could instead grow crops that would provide them and their communities with food, instead. But money is a powerful motivator. And so are threats that if poppies are not sown and grown, one's family's lives will be forfeit.
"We are aware why these people are going to Helmand and we even know that some of them are Taliban fighters who have temporarily laid down arms to work on poppy fields.
"But we cannot detain them as they will simply deny the charges and accuse us of bothering them for no reason."
Besides which, the police officer who spoke these words to an curious interlocutor who meant to publish them in the foreign press, is most likely eager for his share of the profits through the system of corruption that twists and turns throughout Afghan society and culture. Afghanistan provides the world with 90% of its illegal opium.
And Helmand province accounts for 60% of that opium production. 5,800 tonnes of opium was produced in 2011. Two-thirds of farm income from poppy growth and opium production flows to local Taliban as protection money. The one-third left to the farmer still leaves him well off due to the demand for the product both in local and foreign markets.
The lucrative trade in poppies doesn't stop at making Afghan farmers wealthy, provide a tidy wage in a mere 15 to 20 days for eager villagers happy to work on the vast poppy fields earning them an average of $800, a handsome sum for the country.
It satisfies the greed of politicians at every level, including those sitting in the country's parliament. The harvesting of an illegal crop, the bane of law enforcement and the hopelessly addicted throughout the world, represents a celebratory harvesting event in Afghanistan.
Labels: Afghanistan, Agriculture, Economy, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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