17/12/2004
Grow Sugar, Not Poppies, Afghan Farmers Told

To help curb the recent massive growth in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced plans this week to help the country resume its sugar production. Through a project financed by Germany, FAO will rehabilitate Afghanistan's only sugar factory, which ceased operations in the late 1970s. All the 300,000 tons of sugar consumed annually in Afghanistan at present have to be imported.

"The revival of the sugar industry could offer farmers an alternative to poppy production and could boost incomes by introducing a profitable cash crop," said Serge Verniau, FAO Representative in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The sugar factory is located 250 kilometres north west of Kabul, an area suitable for sugar beet production. FAO will help to identify farmers who will then cultivate sugar beet exclusively under contract. Some 2 000 growers will be selected and organised. Germany has recently signed six new projects with FAO for a total value of $3.3 million covering not only the rehabilitation of the sugar factory but also projects for animal health and livestock production.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last month released a report showing that with 131,000 hectares dedicated to opium farming this year, Afghanistan had established a double record - the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, and the largest in the world. It called on the international community to do more in the country's battle against the illicit drug trade.