KABUL, Afghanistan, May 12 (UPI) -- Farmers in western Afghanistan have been promised saffron seed in exchange for destroyed poppy crops in a government bid to slash a thriving narcotics industry.
Government counter-narcotics teams have eradicated vast fields of poppy crops in Herat province, where a campaign has been underway to provide farmers with viable agricultural alternatives, according to the local Herat News Centre.
Officials point out the latest initiative differs from past efforts to cut poppy production because the government has pledged saffron seed to growers.
Poppy flowers are the base of highly addictive narcotics opium and heroin.
Afghanistan produces 86 percent of the world's heroin and this year a record harvest is expected. A glut of opium on the market has plummeted prices to less than $100 a kilogram, or fifty percent lower than one year ago.
Drug production has surged since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Eradication efforts have cost the Afghan government a total of $175 million this year.
