Pubdate: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 Source: Concord Monitor (NH) Copyright: 2002 Monitor Publishing Company Contact: http://www.cmonitor.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/767 Author: Associated Press AFGHANISTAN CHURNED OUT 2,500 TONS OF OPIUM POPPY THIS YEAR KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan secured its place among the world's top producers of opium this year, churning out about 2,500 tons of opium poppy despite a government ban on the crop, the U.N. special representative to Afghanistan said Thursday. Lakhdar Brahimi said putting a stop to production was a difficult task made harder by the fact that many farmers rely on sales of opium to feed their families. "Preliminary assessments have projected this year's opium poppy crop at around 2,500 tons," Brahimi said at the start of an anti-drug conference in Kabul. "I think it is inevitable that the harvest will maintain Afghanistan's place at the top of the poppy exporting countries." President Hamid Karzai's government began a nationwide eradication program in April, offering farmers $500 per acre of destroyed poppy. The money offered little incentive to farmers, who can earn as much as $6,400 per acre for poppy, according to U.N. estimates. U.N. experts said in August that Karzai's government had largely failed in its effort to destroy the crop. On Wednesday, authorities in Kabul destroyed 5,500 pounds of hashish and raw opium in a bonfire - a public warning intended to show the government was serious on cracking down on drug trafficking. The former Taliban regime banned poppy cultivation in 2000, but Afghan farmers began to plant the crop again after the Taliban were ousted last year by U.S. air power and Afghan opposition troops. Brahimi said battling the drug trade was "a long-term endeavor." "It will take time to build institutions, time for the economy itself to become strong enough to offer alternative livelihoods to farmers," Brahimi said. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex