Posted on 10/11/2011 1:02:42 PM PDT by gandalftb
After 10 years of war, Afghanistan remains the world’s leading opium supplier, responsible for 90 percent of the global supply.
Opium cultivation rose by 7 percent in 2011 compared with last year.
Opium production also climbed 61 percent this year.
A crop blight destroyed much of Afghanistan’s opium harvest last year causing a decrease in opium production and creating a simultaneous spike in prices. Higher prices led to much speculation that more Afghan farmers would turn to the crop this year, which has indeed proved to be the case.
UN officials estimate that 10 percent of opium harvest proceeds reach the Taliban, while another 70 percent is absorbed by government bribes and corruption.
5 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces accounted for 78 percent of the country’s opium cultivation. Kandahar and Helmand, were the biggest producers. Cultivation also spread to three provinces that were poppy-free last year.
3,810 hectares of land used for poppy cultivation were eradicated this year out of 131,000 hectares.
That's 2.91% eradicated.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/ORAS_report_2011.pdf
20% goes to the farmers.
10% goes to the Taliban.
70% goes to bribes and Karzai's corrupt government officials.
Looks like the Karzai government, that we are fighting and dying for, has the most to lose if opium is suppressed in any way. Any wonder they don't cooperate and clean up their corruption?
10 years of American blood and treasure and opium cultivation is actually spreading.
2.91% eradicated.....and Karzai is still in office. He and all of his cohorts should be arrested immediately.
Our Marines occupy Helmand and Kandahar and have to be aware that they are protecting poppy fields.
Point one : why never any mention of the Russian mafia connection of arms and ordnance for opium/heroin ?
Point two ; use the already developed bacilli that specifically targets papaver somniferum ( opium poppy )
and hit any that are no affected with Glyphosate .
Cultivated areas are not that big
Send in the C-130’s
Baccillae are not Agent Orange , but they would work
very well as a bio control .
They have it , it is known to work . Use it
Wherever we go, drug production soars. Go figure.
With the drug shortages that have been going on in the US, we need to put those farmers to work, rather than destroy their crops. Many legit medicines are made from the Poppy flowers they grow.
Afghanistan should see a rise in taxable income.
“why never any mention of the Russian mafia”
This was a UN Survey, the same UN that Russia sits on the Security Council.
Russia has a dual problem, it’s mafia brings in enormous amounts of badly needed foreign currency by selling opiates to Europe and America. At the same time millions of Russians are addicts and dying of AIDS from dirty needles.
That bacilli requires rain to spread and kill poppies effectively. Most of the poppy fields are irrigated due to frequent drought.
Trust me, Round Up and a few crop dusters would do the job and make the land barren for years. We would be at war with Karzai if we tried. Hard to open up another war front with the very government that we put in office and protect.
We have to make the hard political decisions, the tactics are easy.
I said 10 years ago the worst thing we could do is try to take away the only cash crop the Afghan tribes have. Best way to unite them agaisnt us and with the Taliban is to go in there and take away their livelyhood. What we should is make them an offer they can’t refuse: sell it to us for higher than market price, or die. We can either covert the opium to medial use, or destroy it.
There's a tax-free, multi-billion dollar underground market that will be filled.
kudzu
stuffs grows one- several feet per day
is extremely hard to kill
goats love the stuff
Quite a number of cash crops could be grown if they had roads and rail to transport to market. When the Taliban was in charge only about 10% as much was grown. Corn and a number of grains do well there.
In fact, poppies are a very unstable crop as they have a critical need for water at certain points and suffer from a number of blights like the one that destroyed 65% of the crop last year.
Afghans have done better without opium in many areas of Afghanistan.
no way , Roundup/Glyphosate has a very short half life
It is in no way a soil sterilizer . The main time to hit them is pre-podding , interrupt the seed supplies . Do this for a few cycles and they will not be able to replace what they need to plant .
At the same time intro them to winter wheat , barley , millet , corn and other useful grain crops . Free seed .
Guarantee them fair market price with NO middlemen , the farmer makes the $ . With the papaver wiped out , this would be a very attractive opportunity.
The secret is to wipe out ALL the poppy , not just some . All or nothing and F Karzai , pull his security detail, the guy is a worthless POS
I never said it was a soil sterilizer. I’ve used it extensively and it will “kill” the soil for a few years as a broad-leaf herbicide. It would be particularly long lasting in drier soils like Afghanistan. Roundup allows other crops such as corn to grow well without competition from weeds.
There are many tons of seeds bagged and stored underground and they could reseed for many years.
We are already giving out free seed, they are eating it.
“NO middlemen” That’s the problem, their cousins and uncles , etc. are the middlemen. They know when a farmer is paid and usually how much. Guess whom invites themselves over to dinner?
No, the only option is crop dusting with herbicides. The problem is that the low flying aircraft get shot down. Not many pilots volunteering for the job.
The long-term answer is roads and rail so individual farmers can organized cooperatives, protect themselves and market together.
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