It goes up, it goes down, like coffee beans.. and politicans. :}
Posted on 05/13/2010 4:13:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
KABUL (AFP) – As the pink poppy fields of southern Afghanistan yield their sticky harvest, opium production in the country that supplies the world with heroin is set to fall, farmers and officials say.
That's good news for the fight against the multi-billion-dollar drugs trade but it could be bad news for Afghan farmers struggling to feed their families as the war against Taliban insurgents and drugs gangs escalates.
"This year we had less poppy cultivation, which I think was because of our public awareness campaign which we launched before cultivation started," said Gul Mohammad, head of the counter-narcotics department of Kandahar province.
Farmers in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, the source of around 90 percent of the world's opium, agreed the harvest will fall this year.
The farmers and other experts cited high rainfall in some areas, drought in others, free seeds for alternatives such as wheat and good prices for food crops, and a mysterious disease withering poppies in some areas.
While some farmers have reportedly accused the United States and Britain of spraying their crops with chemicals, the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said disease was the likely culprit.
Tests by the interior ministry were inconclusive and more were being carried out, said the agency's representative in Kabul, Jean-Luc Lemahieu, adding that "plagues, pests, blight" had hit Afghanistan's poppy crop in 2002 and 2006.
"Natural phenomenon cannot be excluded, as happens to wheat, corn, apples. It is part of nature," Lemahieu said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
That’s so sad for the Taliban, how will they be able to finance their Terror and IED campaign.
I’m waiting for the Zero to bail them out.
While some farmers have reportedly accused the United States and Britain of spraying their crops with a white powder, the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said opium was the likely culprit.
Ok, so maybe we did spread the disease to stop the heroin sales that fund the killing of our troops. So what? Aren't we at war?
If I'm suppose to be sad about this, I must have missed something.
***Afghanistan opium poppies hit by mysterious disease **
Parquat? 2 4 5-D? Roundup?
These people are growing addiction and edeath and I am supposed to give a damn that their poppies are dying. I said years ago to napalm the whole crop.
***As the pink poppy fields of southern Afghanistan ***
Years ago I read that about 125 years ago there was an attempt to raise poppies in Kansas.
It was so labor intensitive that the farmers gave up soon after.
Looks like the price of heroin is going to skyrocket like oil has!
Powdery mildew. HIts my lilacs every year. sd
It goes up, it goes down, like coffee beans.. and politicans. :}
I have a hard time believing these farmers acquire anything beyond the barest subsistence income, when men with guns come to negotiate the selling price for the opium crop. My opinion, totally unsubstantiated, is that the vast majority of these folks could have a much better standard of living under the protection of a viable national government, which would allow them to retain the profits from growing legitimate crops.
“...opium poppies hit by mysterious disease...”
-
What does that do to my heroin futures contracts?
That will be covered under Obama’s Cap and Trax program,
probably pay the farmers not to grow it.
Really a world wide poppy blight would be the best solution.
if opium could be legally grown elsewhere,
the Taliban would see reduced funding
Can you weld cast iron?
The Chicago thug is deeply saddened, he, now, has no reason to be in Afghanistan.
Great, now it’s going to take more food stamps than usual to get your heroin.
I guess we’ll have to give ‘em a cost of living increase.
They're going to... shoot up. HA!
And checked out these annual UN reports on poppy production in Afghansitan. They're very detailed showing exactly which districts the poppy comes from, and what the market price is. Isn't it off that they spend so much effort tracking the problem, but so little is done to stop it?
Oh, that was punny.
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