An increase of opium cultivation in some areas of Karenni State is caused by poverty, a narcotics control unit officer told the Kantarawaddy Times. For the majority of poppy farmers, it is their main source of income, while the rest cultivate it for extra money, Police Deputy Major Hla Lwin explained. Hla Lwin and his team recently burned about 30 acres in Maw-T-Do and 7 acres in Htee-Thaw-Kuu in Muso village-Tract, Phruso Township.
“We are educating poppy farmers that they need to stop growing it and substitute to legal crops, but due to various factors, it’s still being secretly cultivated in areas we haven’t been able to reach yet. Once we can, we will also burn these fields,” Hla Lwin said.
Opium cultivation in Muso Village Tract has already been going on for nearly a decade, said a chairman from Muso village who wished to remain anonymous.
Farmers are very poor. Growing poppy is very attractive because they can make more money and the plant can survive in poor soil and under adverse weather conditions, explained Muso village head U Lwe Ze.
“If three or four villages grow poppy in Muso Village-Tract, (together) farmers can afford to buy tractors and motorcycles. They can also pay for children’s school expenses,” he said.
But Hla Lwin explained by choosing to cultivate the illegal crop they are risking everything. “Their investments are lost when we destroy their fields, we would rather they grow legal crops.”
In October police destroyed around 20 acres in neighboring Demawso Township, bringing the total of 57 acres destroyed in 2014.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates in their latest report that drug cultivation, production and use in Burma rose by 13% in 2013, putting the total land being used for cultivation at 143,000 acres.
English version translated by Aung Myat Soe, edited by Brennan O`Connor
