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AFGHANISTAN-DRUG TRADE: SCIENTISTS SAY LIVESTOCK MOVE COULD CURB HEROIN CROP
(Comtex Global News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)LONDON, Jan. 26 WAM, 2006 (QNA via COMTEX) --Sheep, cattle and goat production could provide the alternative income needed to persuade Afghan farmers to give up growing the opium poppies needed to supply the world's illegal heroin trade, according to a press report.
Scientists at Aberdeen's Macaulay Land Use Research Institute made the suggestion in a report funded by the UK Government's Department of International Development, the 'Press and Journal', Scotland, reported.
Iain Wright, chief executive of Macaulay Research Consultancy Services, said livestock production had an important role to play in rebuilding war-torn Afghanistan, and in giving farmers a new income to replace the crop which provides the basis for the multibillion-pound drugs trade.
"Livestock margins cannot compete with opium, but if there were a clampdown on poppy production, then cattle, sheep and goats could provide the alternative income stream. There is strong demand for sheep meat in Afghanistan. It is the meat of preference. There is also demand for beef."
The country's previous Taliban administration forced a clampdown on opium poppies in its final year in power. Since then, production has risen, despite the growing of poppies being illegal.
Mr Wright, who has visited Afghanistan on several occasions recently, said: "It's grown in rural areas. There are a lot of provinces where there are quite significant areas of poppies. It is only grown for the heroin trade.
"The Afghan government is again trying to curb poppy production, but if you do that you have to provide an alternative source of income. It is illegal to grow poppies but, given the state of the country and the economy, it is difficult for the government to get enough resources to police it.
"There is little that can compete with the economics of opium production." He said the poppies were grown by poor rural families, many of whom had few opportunities and were desperately trying to feed their families. There were, however, opportunities to be got from selling meat to towns.
He pointed to funding being needed for credit schemes to allow farmers to buy stock, and to boost the country's livestock sector which has been in decline for the last 15 years because of war and drought.
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