In Myanmar, Some Farmers Drop Poppies for Coffee Beans

Simon Lewis, Daniel De Carteret

TAUNGGYI, MYANMAR— For 54-year-old farmer Long San, growing opium makes simple economic sense.

He started planting poppies - which produce the resin that can be manufactured into heroin - eight years ago when the market for his traditional cash-crop collapsed. Like most people in Long Tway village, in the steep hills of Myanmar’s southern Shan State, he used to plant his fields with cheroot leaves, which are used to roll cigars.

“After I switched to opium I could make about $2,500 (3 million kyat) a year,” he said. “With cheroot leaves I was only making $250 (300,000 kyat).”

Despite the windfall, Long San and other farmers in this area interviewed by VOA now say that opium’s inconsistent yields, the soil erosion caused by deforesting the hills to plant poppies, and the threat of government eradication programs mean they are willing to abandon the illicit crop.

Since late last year, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been recommending coffee as the replacement. They hope the mountainous region’s altitude will lend itself to producing high-quality coffee for export.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/in-myanmar-poppies-replaced-with-coffee-beans/2870365.html

can monsanto not make a GMO to kill the heroin business crop ?

can monsanto not make a GMO to kill the heroin business crop ?

Nah. More likely they can make it grow faster,more potent, kill faster, more profitable......at street level !

I am involved with helping to build up the coffee business in Myanmar. If coffee production could gradually push against the boundaries of where poppy is being produced and replace it, that would be an excellent thing. In fact, only recently I conveyed this opinion to some of Myanmar's most important people in the coffee business. They were a bit sceptical only in the sense that they have been living in a country that has had ethnic armies fighting against the central government for some 60 years and opium has provided a relatively good income for them, but I believe that if Myanmar coffee develops a reputation, it's production can move more and more into former conflict areas including those where opium is currently grown and potentially be a catalyst towards disarming ethnic rebels, as a major cash crop like coffee, if processed and marketed in the right ways can provide a lucrative form of income for local villagers.