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BARA/PARSA, APR 16 -
If you were a farmer, and you could get anywhere between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 75,000 for a single kg of your harvest, would you switch to the crop? Especially as the crop in question required minimal fertilizers, yielded more per acre of cultivation than wheat or rice, and extremely little attention.
It seems the farmers in the southern plains of Parsa and Bara district have chosen to switch. And in a political climate where impunity and lawlessness are rampant, farmers here seem to have forgotten a small detail: the crop is opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), and the harvest—pure opium.
Not that farmers here are newcomers at cultivating illegal crops. The crop of choice for such farmers earlier was cannabis; however, higher rates of return, and a nonchalant attitude from both the government and law enforcement officials has increasingly attracted more towards opium cultivation in the last five years.
Farmers here have begun selling their harvested raw opium since the last one week. Once restricted to small pockets, this year, 25 of the 82 Parsa Village Development Committees saw poppy cultivation—bringing the total area under cultivation to around 677 hectares across the district.
The going rates this year for the harvest are thought to be between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 75,000 per kg of raw opium. And, in a distorted view of a globalised society, the buyers come from across the border in India, where there is a much larger market for the narcotic, and more complex laboratories where the opium is processed into heroin. Also, farmers get much more by selling opium to Indian traders than Nepali, as the United Nations Office of Drug Control (UNODC)’s World Drug Report 2009 states. According to the report, the typical price for raw opium in Nepal is about $453 (Rs. 33,975) a kg, while the same quantity in India is sold for $670 (50,250).
One farmer says this year wasn’t exactly a very good year for poppy. Because, according to him, harvests this year have dropped to 500 grams of opium per kattha (0.083 acres) from the usual yield of one kg per kattha of poppy. “The best time to cultivate poppy is between October and March. Within these six months, everything from the sowing to the harvest is finished,” says the farmer who did not want to be named. Nearly all poppy farmers here refuse to divulge their names for fears that they will not be allowed to cultivate the crop next year.
The open borders between India and Nepal means the rising trade in opium is unchecked. But the police, though they are aware of the trade, have not cracked down upon it yet. Since last month, an increasing number of Indian buyers of opium have come into the district. Farmers say they buy not only the opium, but also the shoots and the dried-up seeds, for which the traders pay anything between Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,000 a kg.
Such high returns, and a lax governmental attitude has meant more and more farmers are shifting to poppy cultivation, including even those whose traditional crops include rice and wheat. Even cannabis, which was the preferred narcotic crop earlier, cultivation has suffered due to lower prices compared with opium. The fact that the police only gear up to destroy poppy fields during the time of the harvest has also led some to question whether they are doing so only for publicity. Farmers says the police are complicit in the trade; one farmer says he had to pay the police Rs. 1,000 per bigha (0.677 hectares) of poppy in three different installments. Obviously, there is some big money to be made here, and the police don’t want to be left behind.
The police defend their moves by saying they are doing as much as they can. A high-ranking police official from Bara district says it is impossible to crack down on every poppy farmer, as nearly village is growing the crop. This year alone, the police have destroyed 270 hectares of poppy fields, according to Parsa Superintendent of Police Rajendra Man Shrestha.
Shiv Prasad Nepal, Bara Chief District Officer, says, “We will charge anyone who’s found to be cultivating or transporting opium.” Nepal has just been posted to the district, and says he will take immediate action once he understands the complete scenario.
Despite assertions by the state and the law enforcement, data available with the police shows that not a single farmer has been charged with poppy cultivation in the district this year. One police officer, on the condition of anonymity, says Bara alone must have produced opium worth Rs. 500 million this year. “I am sure the real figures are much higher,” he says.
Parsa SP Shrestha says he has called for additional manpower to destroy more poppy fields. “We have faced hostile villagers many times when we destroy their crop,” he says. He agrees that poppy cultivation here may have helped armed underground outfits and criminals active in the region. “The sale of opium has helped them acquire sophisticated weapons,” he says.
Opium, the resin of the poppy flower, is a highly-addictive alkaloid that contains morphine, probably the world’s most-used painkiller. Opiates—drugs derived from opium—remain the world’s number one problem drug, according to UNODC. The street price differential between opium and heroin, its high-grade derivative, is an astounding 900 percent in India, with heroin being sold for $6,100 a kg typically.
Those who know the trade say Nepal hasn’t yet developed the laboratories required to process raw opium into morphine and then into heroin. Instead, the opium is taken to various Indian states where illegal processing laboratories are rampant. Which is why Indian buyers are willing to pay the high prices for the raw product, as in the international markets, pure heroin can be sold for at least IRs. 4 million (Rs. 6.4 million) a kilo.
In India, though, the production of opium is controlled by government agencies for its use in pharmaceutical drugs. Barabanki district in the state of Uttar Pradesh has an opium-processing laboratory owned by the government. But, as happens in Nepal, the lax approach of government agencies means illegal production is equally rampant there.
The international war on terror has increasingly become identifiable with the war on drugs, with troops in Afghanistan focusing on how to disrupt the global heroin trade. The Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam is equally known for its heroin production. If uncontrolled, and allowed to foster, Nepal may also become a part of this global narcotic trade. This is where the state must step in, and nip the opium in the bud.
Posted on: 2010-04-17 09:05
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