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---------- Post added at 15:50 ---------- Previous post was at 15:49 ----------
It would be better if there weren't tonnes and tonnes of opium stockpiled in Pakistan and the surrounding areas making a drop in crops for a year or so pretty meaningless.
HERAT, Afghanistan - Abdul Samad has given up growing poppies. The farmer from Gulmir, from a village in Pashtun Zarghon district of Herat province, has found monetary and spiritual benefits in switching to saffron.
"I always felt sinful when I was growing poppies," he said. "The money brought me no joy, and did not allow me to change my life."
In 2007, Afghanistan supplied more than 90% of the world's opium poppy, the raw material for heroin.
Abdul Samad grew the illegal crop for five years until a new government program helped him make the switch to saffron, the world's most expensive spice.
"I make more money than I used to," he said. "With poppy, I got between US$400 and $600 for each jerib of land. Now I make more than US$5,000." A jerib is approximately half an acre.
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