What happens when you grow dope rather than food

NY Times:

A pitiable harvest this year has left small farmers all over central and northern Afghanistan facing hunger, and aid officials are warning of an acute food shortage this winter for nine million Afghans, more than a quarter of the population.

The crisis has been generated by the harshest winter in memory, followed by a drought across much of the country, which come on top of the broader problems of deteriorating security, the accumulated pressure of returning refugees and the effects of rising world food prices.

The failure of the Afghan government and foreign donors to develop the country’s main economic sector, agriculture, has compounded the problems, the officials say. They warn that the food crisis could make an already bad security situation worse.

The British charity Oxfam, which conducted a provisional assessment of conditions in the province of Daykondi, one of the most remote areas of central Afghanistan, has appealed for international assistance before winter sets in. “Time is running out to avert a humanitarian crisis,” it said.

That assessment is echoed by villagers across the broader region, including in Bamian Province. “In all these 30 years of war, we have not had it as bad as this,” said Said Muhammad, a 60-year-old farmer who lives in Yakowlang, in Bamian. “We don’t have enough food for the winter. We will have to go to the towns to look for work.”

Underlying the warnings are growing fears of civil unrest. The mood in the country is darkening amid increasing economic hardship, worsening disorder and a growing disaffection with the government and its foreign backers, particularly over the issue of government corruption.

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The US and its allies will not let the Afghan starve. There has not been a famine as such since the artificial ones imposed by the Taliban and al Qaeda. One of the ironies is that farmers would probably be more profitable if they grew food rather than poppies which are sold cheap to the Taliban who turn them into profits for supporting their wicked war.

For too long we have tolerated the growth of the product that sustains our enemy for fear of making more enemies, but how long could the Taliban and the farmers sustain their efforts if they had no crop at all? And, if the alternative was to grow food crops that would not be destroyed would not a rational farmer make that choice?