Poppy growers in Pekon Township, Southern Shan State have told the government that they cannot give up producing opium unless the government comes up with alternatives such as development and crop substitution projects.
“There are obstacles that we have to overcome and we need things like education, transportation, health, water, electricity and so on. We want to fight against opium and if they help us with these things we will be able to stop growing,” a poppy grower told Kantarawaddy Times.
There are over 4,000 households in the three village tracts of Ye-Lon Ye-Kan, Ye-Nwet and Kaung-Ei and most of them grow poppy, which gives them enough income to provide them with a livelihood and pay for educational and health costs.
According to a farmer during the term of Lt. Gen Khin Nyunt (1988-2004), the former military chief and premiere of the SPDC government, there were projects to substitute poppy for other crops, but they were unsuccessful so the farmers continued to cultivate poppy.
He said: “At that time we asked for Pan Joain variety wheat, they gave us the wheat seeds and we planted widely, but we were unsuccessful because we planted too late.”
He added that some crops could be used to substitute for opium in the area, but they still faced difficulties because there was no local market for those crops.
Another farmer said that if they were to stop growing poppy projects such as supplying electricity, drinking water, transportation and a health development programme would have to be immediately initiated.
A small amount of poppy is grown in Karenni State, but more is secretly grown just over the state border in the mountain ranges of Shan State in areas that are not accessible to vehicles.
Government officials destroyed poppy fields to the west of Pekon Township on 14th November in the third such operation they have carried out this growing season.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
