Farmers switch to cotton from poppy in Uruzgan

TIRINKOT (Pajhwok): Farmers in central Uruzgan province have grown cotton on their land instead of poppy, saying cotton is a better and safe alternative for the illicit plant.

However, the farmers asked the government to provide facilities for processing cotton products in the province.

Cotton cultivation was first started in Dehrawod district and farmers this year cultivated the crop on thousands of hectares of land in Uruzgan.

Farmers say that after Helmand and Kandahar, cotton cultivation in Uruzgan is also on the rise and may further increase in the future.

Janan, a resident of Dehrawod district, is one of the first farmers who has cultivated cotton on his five acres of farmland.

Janan told Pajhwok Afghan News that cotton required less water than poppy, and it was easier to cultivate and gave persistent yields.

He said they benefited from the raw yield of cotton and also used its residues for heating their homes during winter.

He was happy over finding a good alternative to poppy and making his economy through the farm.

However, he asked the government to facilitate cotton processing in Uruzgan so it would encourage more farmers to grow the crop.

Khayal Mohammad is another farmer in the district who has grown cotton instead of poppy this year and is now busy collecting the crop.

He said that the ministry of agriculture should facilitate cotton processing factories in the province so it would help farmers to get more benefit from their produce.

"Traders buy a kilogram of unprocessed cotton for 50 afghanis from us. If we had the machinery to process cotton here, we would not only sell the crop on a higher price but would also produce oil and cotton cake,” he said.

Other farmers also said that cotton was a good alternative to poppy but asked the government to provide needed resources to them.

Uruzgan Agriculture Department officials also say that farmers in Dehrawod and Charchino districts have switched to cotton from poppy this year.

Eng.QudratullahHamidi, promotion manager at Uruzgan Agriculture Department, told Pajhwok that the department planned to provide vocational training to farmers in the coming years.

He said that cotton was a great alternative to poppy as it produced more crop against little cost and water.

Hamidi added that he would share farmers' demands about providing cotton processing factories with the ministry.

He said that although cotton was now grown more instead of poppy in Uruzgan, but some farmers still cultivated poppy in some parts of the province.

Poppy cultivation this year may be 10 percent higher because its price has been recently increased, he added.

This comes as Helmand and Kandahar provinces have grown more poppy than in previous years.

People say that since the Taliban came to power, large number of farmers turned to poppy cultivation because they fear that the poppy cultivation may be banned.

mds/ma