Afghan men harvest opium in a poppy field in Farah province.GORAN TOMASEVIC
Trading poppies for pomegranates is a tough sell in Afghanistan, but a top U.S. official says there are signs of progress in the campaign to convert the world's opium capital into a land of fruit, nuts and other legal crops.
Many have written off the anti-poppy campaign by allied forces in Afghanistan, but in his first visit to Ottawa Tuesday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack insisted these projects are working.
"We know that there is - in some areas of the country - there's a reduction in poppy production and there's a greater interest in pomegranates and saffron and table grapes, things of that nature, which could potentially create a much brighter future for Afghan farmers," he said in an interview with Canadian reporters.
Farming is far and away the main source of income for Afghans, with an estimated 80 per cent of the population working in agriculture. Afghanistan produces almost all of the world's opium, which is used to make heroin, morphine and other drugs.
United Nations statistics show opium cultivation dropped dramatically in 2001 when the Taliban regime imposed a ban in its last year of power before it was overthrown. By 2007, however, production had significantly increased.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture stress, though, that the same UN reports show cultivation has since dropped by a third and the number of poppy-free Afghan provinces could grow this year from 20 to 25. They also point to increases in wheat production.
They do not, however, mention another UN report on cannabis released this year, which concluded Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of hashish and that large-scale cannabis cultivation is taking place in exactly half of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
In April, the U.S. Department of Defence issued a report to Congress that concluded the anti-poppy campaign from 2004 to 2008 "was counterproductive and drove farmers to the insurgency," but spoke more positively of a new approach aimed at helping farmers with loans and seeds and arresting area drug lords.
Mr. Vilsack's visit was mainly to promote U.S. agricultural products, but he said he intended to thank Canada for its military and civilian efforts in Afghanistan in a subsequent meeting with Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.
Mr. Vilsack said he can understand farmers' temptation to grow opium, given that the seeds are offered for free and the crops are picked up at the gate - not to mention the financial rewards.
"So in order to change that mentality it's necessary for the United States, Canada and other countries to provide an alternative that addresses the risks of traditional agriculture and minimizes those risks and maximizes the return," he said.
Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, a former chair of the Senate national security and defence committee, said allies should have far more limited goals in Afghanistan.
"You can't do reforms like that with people who are illiterate and have a medieval culture in the middle of a civil war," he said.
Bill Curry