Bangkok (Mizzima) - Burma’s production of opium poppy continues to rise by almost 50 percent since 2006, says a report of the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime.
The UN anti-narcotics agency says the cultivation of opium poppy has risen in Burma for the third year in a row.
“There is a strong potential for the previous efforts to contain poppy cultivation and opium production to unravel,” Regional Head of UNODC, Gary Lewis told journalists in Bangkok on Monday, at the launch of the organization’s latest annual survey of poppy cultivation in South-East Asia. “The situation is likely to get progressively worse as a result of political insecurity in the north and economic pressures,” he added.
However, Burma is still a far cry from the 1990s, when the country was the world's largest opium producer as part of the infamous Golden Triangle.
More than 31,000 hectares of land is currently devoted to cultivating opium in north Burma, according to the survey, an increase of 11% compared to last year. Opium production is up from last year according to the report. “It would have been even higher but for a fall in the yield, because of bad weather conditions,” leading alternative development specialist with UNODC, Leik Boonwaat, who is based in Laos, told Mizzima.
Nearly 200,000 villagers are now growing opium poppy in Burma, almost double the number from 2006, when one of the main producers, after the Wa declared their region opium-free. These farmers earn a paltry USD 160 a year for their efforts. The price of opium in Burma has increased by USD 16 to USD 317 a kg, adding to the economic incentive for former opium producers to return to poppy cultivation.
“These farmers, who are returning to poppy cultivation live in remote and inhospitable areas in northern Burma and have little alternative but to grow poppy to earn cash to meet some of their critical needs – food in times of shortage and medicines,” said Mr Boonwaat.
“Economic pressures have had a powerful effect on the former poppy growers resulting in their resuming cultivation,” he said. The prices of many of the alternative crops that are grown instead of poppy have fallen. The prices of maize and rubber, which is produced as an alternative cash crop, have fallen by nearly 50 percent in the past year. Other alternatives – especially fruit from the commercial orchards and tobacco -- rely on the Chinese market.
“Demand there has fallen drastically because of the effect of the global economic crisis and credit crunch. “The Chinese authorities still insist on taxing these goods heavily, making it impossible for many of the farmers growing these crops to make a living” a Burmese anti-narcotics agent told Mizzima on condition of anonymity.
More than half of Burma’s current poppy cultivation is in Southern Shan state, while Eastern Shan state is the second highest producing area, with nearly 40 percent of the country’s poppy cultivated there. There has also been a small increase in Kachin and Karen states, according to the UN report. However there is no recorded increase in the Wa and Kokang areas, Mr Lewis told Mizzima.
But the political instability in the north, especially along the border with China and the uncertain future for the ethnic rebel armies after the Burmese government demanded they surrender their arms before the end of the year is causing concern, according to the UN.
“Ceasefire groups – autonomous ethnic militia like the Wa and Kachin – are selling drugs to buy weapons, and moving stocks to avoid detection,” said head of the UN drugs agency based in the Austrian capital, Vienna, Antonio Maria Costa in a press release issued with the organization’s latest report.
Meanwhile, the UN’s own opium survey does not support this conclusion. Western anti-narcotics officials believe that the production of methamphetamines is more likely to be used for these purposes. The UN agency recently also warned that the region was becoming the world’s largest producer of synthetic drugs like amphetamines – with Burma as one of the key players.
“History has shown that security and stability are essential pre-requisites for the eradication of poppy cultivation,” Mr Boonwaat told Mizzima. So the political uncertainty does not make it easy for farmers to resist the economic pressure to return to poppy cultivation. “Farmers are suffering badly and so are returning to poppy cultivation,” he said.
The Burmese government has not made it easy either, he confided. Several proposed projects have been rejected or suspended because of the forthcoming elections planned for sometime in 2010, he added.
