Afghanistan announced an ambitious plan Thursday to eradicate the cultivation of poppy in most of its territory, starting in the south where the Taliban had long retained its influence.
Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Daud said areas where NATO-led military operations were under way--including Marjah in Helmand province--would be taken up after the militants were ousted.
He, however, said destruction of marijuana plants was begun in other parts of Helmand, where for years militants controlled the region along with drug-traffickers.
Similar drives were begun in Nangarhar and Farah provinces, and would soon be launched in Kandahar, another militant hotspot and center of poppy-production, Daud said.
He said that the marijuana crop-eradication campaign would be carried out in three stages--public awareness, prevention of planting, and eradication--by offering to farmers to plant alternate crops, including cereals. He said 25 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces were free of poppy-cultivation by last year.
Afghanistan is the source of 90 per cent of the world's heroin, and its $3-billion drug industry is controlled by militants and groups who use cross-border routes to smuggle drugs to Pakistan and Iran, as well as carrying weapons for its members.
The UNODC said in its annual drug business report that the production of cannabis in Afghanistan decreased from 8200 tons in 2007 to 6900 tons in 2009.
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