Afghan governor supports spraying of opium poppies
The new governor of Afghanistan’s largest opium-producing province today said he supports a US-backed plan to spray herbicide on lucrative poppy fields, and that he will ask Taliban fighters to support the government.
Gov. Asadullah Wafa, who replaced Mohammad Daud as Helmand province governor last month, said his policy as governor will be to talk with all Afghans, from tribal leaders to Taliban fighters.
“I believe in government including the people,” Wafa said. “Without the people, how do you have government?”
Wafa said he supports a US-backed plan to spray poppies with herbicides “on (the) condition it doesn’t affect other crops".
Helmand province is believed to grow more than a third of the world’s opium.
Spraying is a new concept in Afghanistan, where some fear herbicides’ effects. US officials insist that a common weed killer without harmful side effects would be used, sprayed from ground-based equipment – not aircraft.
John Walters, director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, said last month that Afghan poppies would be sprayed with herbicide this year, though the Afghan government has not publicly said it would go ahead with the plan.
Wafa said that it would be a “struggle” to eradicate Helmand’s poppy crop this spring and summer, and that a successful operation would require more Afghan police and the international community’s support.
Afghanistan’s opium production last year rose 49% to 6,700 tons, enough to make about 670 tons of heroin. Helmand makes up 42% of Afghanistan’s poppy crop, according to UN figures.
Wafa said he has a draft drug plan “will have good results” if implemented. It includes persuading farmers to grow cotton or fruit instead of poppies.
Wafa said farmers could make as much money growing legal crops as they do growing opium poppies. The majority of profits in Afghanistan’s heroin trade go to smugglers and traffickers.
Wafa has previously served as the governor of Paktia and Kunar provinces, where he was widely viewed as an effective leader.
