Opium poppy acreage shrinks
Ha Noi, Feb. 20 (VNA) -- Viet Nam's opium poppy acreage has shrunk from 19,000 ha in the 1992-93 crop to 420 ha at present, according to the State Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas.
The committee held a conference in Ha Noi today, Feb. 20, to review the implementation of the opium poppy eradication programme in the 1993-2000 period.
Over the past eight years, the State has invested VND 320 billion for a national drug control programme, including VND 113 billion for opium poppy eradication. It has also issued supportive policies to help people in poppy-growing areas replace the opium poppy with cinnamon, anise, tea, fruit-trees and drought-resistant rice.
In addition, the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) has provided USD 3.8 million for a socio-economic development project in Ky Son district of central Nghe An province with a view to replacing the opium poppy with other crops.
As a result, the living conditions of 77.7 percent of local households have been gradually improved.
However, the planting of the opium poppy has been resumed in some localities due to difficulties. Some people have also begun to grow the opium poppy in some areas of the Central Highlands.
To ease the situation, the State will boost its investment in infrastructure construction in mountainous areas and issue incentive policies to help farmers process and market their products, change economic structure, develop education and health care.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has devised a project to replace the opium poppy with other crops in mountainous communes for the 2001-2005 period. The VND 794 billion project will be carried out in 186 communes of 10 northern mountainous provinces.--VNA
